Last Day of Project

Today was the last day to work on the project and it went pretty well.  All my group had to do was make a poster because we had finished the bulk of it yesterday.  maria drew a foot on the poster which looked really good, but her stars were a little blotchy.  So I was the one who filled those in.  Grace and I went to get something from the printer, pasted in on and were finished.  It was a pretty quick class.  Nothing really happened.

I am a genius

My slogan I thought of for shoes was, "Enlighten your sole, put U.S. in control. Buy American made products."  The "U.S." would just be pronounced us.  In all honesty, it is brilliant, and I doubt even you could think of that (hehe).  So the whole class time we worked on the project.  The only thing we didn't get to was the poster, so we're doing it tomorrow.  I'm going to bring in glitter so it's pretty.

New Project

We talked for a good while about what we saw in the video from previous days.  During the movie we saw the parts of all their cars, and oh my gosh, they are the weirdest things ever!  One looked like a space shuttle, the other had no doors, just windows that were used at the doors, and they all just looked like the cars in the Grinch.  Who-cars.  Haha!  I would never drive them, for looks and because none of them have passed admissions.  Every single one of them are just a piece of metal, flimsy metal.  We watched one of those crashed tests and the entire front of it and the rim was crushed.  I forget what it actually was that that didn't pass admissions, so the American government basically made them make it a certain way so it would pass our admissions tests.  We also talked about how Beijing is so polluted that during the Olympics the competitors had to wear masks and such.  There was also a part in the movie where the reporter was trying to get the Chinese dude to admit they were talking Ford cars, and selling them to Americans.  Sadly, though because he was a good public relations person, he would not seem to admit to it.

Definitions

Capitalism: An economic and political system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses to make profit.  Private owned corporations, can be a big business or a small one.  America uses Capitalism.

Communism: An economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.  It's to create a classless country, no upper, no lower, and no middle class.   The government owns all of the businesses & everything.

Free Enterprise: An economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.  Free of state control.  The people who own the shop decided how much things there cost.

Free Market: Economic system in which prices are determined by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses.  

MOVIE

So we had a little discussion on whether or not the Chinese car company was LIFON or LIFAN.  Maheer said it ended in -ON and I said that it ended in -AN.  Of course, I was right.  So we just watched more of the movie, and talked about how and why American cars are more expensive-because they are more durable and reliable with the car companies that have been around for a long time.  All of the cars though are made in China, that is why the Who Family was confused as to why they were more expensive.  9 out of 10 people pay in cash, and that is because they don't want to have to keep paying for the car even if they loose their job.  This one American makes half of what he did a year ago working for I believe it was Ford.  The last thing that we talked about was that China is the largest producer and consumer of steel.

Another Movie!

We got our essays back and I got a 97%!  Anyway I had thought we were done the movie on China's Country and stuff.  We weren't thought, there was still a few minutes left.  I'm going to get mixed up with the facts that came with either movie.  We started the third movie, because he liked it better.  (I'm not sure if these facts pertain to the first movie or the second).  There was a guy who makes 100 dollars a week.  This is an extremely well paying job in the US.  This is terrible especially considering that he worked as an expert with dynamite.  That is such a dangerous job, especially considering that if he messes up, everything is slowed down and it's all his fault.  America is so far #1 in the world for its advanced highways and supposedly China will be over take us in this department.  Also when an accident is caused the police will come up, be the judge and the jury and decide who is to blame, and how much.  If it is just a little bit a person will give the other money to fix it and then they carry on.  China is also building highways by hand, and they used to ride bikes everywhere, but not anymore.  I remember the guy who had a duck face and wasn't very attractive, he claims that they are not stealing our designs, but lets be real, he is, he just doesn't want to admit it.  We didn't get very far in it though.

Finished Movie

We finished the movie Friday!  Finally, but we saw how one family barely made enough money to survive and to send their daughter to a boarding school.  Marriage was bad, the wife said she was going to leave him soon, I forget when, but she was going to start a living on her own and forget about her alcoholic husband whom she does not like anymore.  The other family was rich and lived in the US in a nice house, and the dad had a lab place set up in China because it cost much less for 10x more space.  We stopped to talk for a while about how they had SAT book and all these electronics out and about.  

Wal-Mart :(

In the beginning of class, I left to go to the bathroom so I missed that.  Most of the class was spent on our discussions.  We were talking about the immigrants and how some say they are taking over American jobs.  Mexicans were talked about for a while and how Mr. Schick's wife's friend worked with some, and baked them cookies while they fed her really hot peppers.  They would send the money they got to their families, but before they left to get back (after 6 months) they would stock up on things from Wal-Mart.  Personally, I don't know why they wouldn't go to Target, I hate Wal-Mart.  Then when we got to the movie it was more about Wal-Mart.  The lady who got fired (whom Damon and I both hate) shops at Wal-Mart when she knows that that is why the Chinese have her job-because people buy from Wal-Mart for their low places.  I feel like every Wal-Mart is trashy.  She had no answer to the movie people when they asked why she shops there.  She did this to herself, and she always looks angry.  For a long while we talked about stocks and how they work.  Mr. Schick made a couple thousand off of Internet America, which isn't used anymore because there is WiFi everywhere!  

More Movie

We watched more of the movie but we stopped to talk for a long while about I think Missouri, had a chain reaction that was for the worse.  When the 480 people lost their jobs it affected the whole town and caused a lot of places to go out of business.  We watched a part over because he wanted it to sink in for us.  After this Mr. Schick told us the story about how him and his wife were going to travel to Texas for Christmas and their car wouldn't work.  The short of the story is they got to Texas, but they didn't think they would.  We didn't get much farther into the movie actually. 

The People's Republic of Capitalism

In the beginning we took about five minutes to talk about an assembly tomorrow from someone’s name that is Gerry Sandusky, but spelled with a "G", not a "J" like the stupid pedophile. (Luckily, I've heard that all the pedophiles in prison are looked as like dirt by all the other prisoners, so they are just tortured until they die!)  Anyway, he will be telling us about how the other Jerry, has changed his life.  If we ask a good question to him, we get 10 extra credit points.  After that we talked a little about how Egypt's old dictator was thrown out of office and replaced with Ben Netanyahu and now he is sadly starting to become more of a dictator than the people would like him to be.  After this we watched a movie about China, the title of this was called the People's Republic of Capitalism.  It was basically about China, and their life in comparison to America's.  It talked about the earthquake and how it struck schools, and good, prosperous land.  The schools and buildings collapsed because they were made out of wood and not concrete like most all buildings in America are.  Also, 55,000 people died in the earthquake lots of them were children because they were in school.  There is only the one-child rule in China so all of the parents lost their only child.  If you are caught in the city with more than one child it is a huge fine.  But the government allows parents to try again if the can prove their child has died.  There is a city call Chongqing, and it is along the Yangzi River, this is known to Americans as the “Biggest city Americans have never heard of”, there are a lot of rich people here.  There is a larger amount of poor people in China then there are in all of America.  There are 1 ½ million people working on construction, and the men only get paid 3-4 dollars a day, not an hour a day.  The women only get paid 1 or 2 dollars an hour.  This is because there are so many Chinese people and a ginormous amount is poor, so they are willing to work for just about anything since it is better than none at all.  We also saw how American companies are being “taken over” by the Chinese because of how cheap it is costing for them.  For example, Briggs and Stratton 480 people were laid off last year because it is less costly to ship it around the world and have the Chinese work, than just the Americans.  

Fun

We just went on Free Rice and if we reached 300 grains, then we showed him and he graded our test.  It took me a while to reach 300, but I did, and I got my test, and let him grade it.  Thankfully, I got a 100%, again!  Once we were done with that, we just talked, and did no work.

Another Test

We handed in our essays, such a good feeling to be done with it.  Anyway we had another test and it was pretty simple.  The same as the others just another section added on.  This one had maps, pictures of leader, and just random information.  Once we were done with the test we could do whatever we wanted, talk, do homework, or study for something in other classes.  I decided to study for English.

Friday

More was talked about the project, but we talked most about Iran and Israel.  It's probably going to be an all out war, bombs are being shot everywhere and Israel is about to cross the border (in tanks).  We looked at pictures taken of people who are in a state of emergency or the missiles being fired off.  It doesn't seem real though because of all the movies I watch, that is exactly what happen, but it's not a movie.  Anyway we looked at pictures and talked about the essay due Monday at the start of class and the relationship between Israel, Iran and us.

"Logan"

So, we had another shadow today but instead of it being with Jake she was with Maddie.  Her name was Logan, and Mr. Schick kept putting "  " around her name.  Which I didn't understand but I don't understand most of what it does to interrogate the shadows anyway.  So, we all we did was talk a little bit about the homework from the previous night.  Oh, and we also switched seats in class and it was the highest grades in the class to the lowest for the order of choosing them.  I was second to go!  I don't recall at all who was last or anywhere in between, all I remember is that Liam was in front of me and Grace was supposed to be called but her and Nadia somehow got skipped in the order, so they had to choose bad seats.  I do remember Grace saying "I didn't think my grade was this bad!"  It was sort of amusing.  Anyway for the most part we talked about the essay that has to be completed and printed by Monday at 9:32.  We got to vote on whether or not it should be 100 or 200 points, 200 points got the majority vote.  The essay is about two countries we have been learning about and their relationship to America.  It only has to be 500 words. Yay!  So, yup, that was our class.

About the Countries

United States

Declared independence on July 4, 1776

From the 1500s through the 1700s, they were settled and colonized by the Spanish, British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and other European nations.  The original thirteen colonies were held by Great Britain until the Revolutionary War, after which they became the first thirteen states.  There are now 50 states in the United States.  The United States is considered the last true superpower, with the world's largest military and the world's largest economy.

Israel

Israel became an independent state on May 14, 1948

Following World War Two, the newly-formed United Nations drafted a treaty dividing up some of Palestine's land.  They established an independent Arab state and an independent Jewish state.  Many Jews emigrated to the new nation of Israel post WWII.  Creation of this new Jewish state was not universally accepted by Arabs, even though Israel was officially admitted to the UN on May 11, 1949.  There is still controversy surrounding Israel's very existence in the Middle East.

China

China's official date of independence is October 1, 1949.

China is one of the world's oldest civilizations.  As long ago as 221 BC, China was unified as a nation during the Qin dynasty.  They formed a republic on January 1, 1912.  The current Communist government, officially called the People's Republic of China, was formed in 1949.  

Brazil

Brazil officially gained independence in September 7, 1822.

Before Brazil become independent, they were under the Portuguese rule for over three centuries. The Portuguese claimed the land in April 1500 when Pedro Alvares Cabral and his fleet landed. The discovery of gold and other natural resources caused a lot of people to migrate to Brazil. Today, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world.

Venezuela

Declared independence on July 5, 1811.

Spain colonized Venezuela in 1522 even though they the natives did not want the Spanish there. Venezuela was the first Spanish-American colony to declare independence; however the independence was not official until Gran Colombia collapsed in 1821. Today, Venezuela has 23 states with a large population in the north and excels in the export of oil. 

India

India became independent in August 15, 1947.

India was once ruled by the United Kingdom power. They became independent because of a non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi. India has a lot of important historic trade routes. In current times, India has the second largest population and home of many religions, the mains being Hinduism, Buddhims, Jainism, and Sikhism.

Afghanistan

Gained independence on August 19, 1919.

Britain controlled Afghanistan. The Pashtun tribe founded Afghanistan in 1747. Afghanistan is land between the British and Roman Empires,serving as a buffer. Afghanistan was home to the silk road, an important trade route in history. The Taliban is located in Afghanistan. Currently there is a war in Afghanistan and it is not a very safe place to visit. 


Iran

Iran became independent on April 1, 1979.

Iran is known as the Islamic Republic of Iran as of 1935 when the ruling monarchy was overthrown (Iranian Revolution). Before 1935, Iran was known as Persia, meaning "land of the Aryans." The Iranian Revolution began in January 1978 when the first major demonstrations against the The Shah occurred. December 1979, the country approved a theocratic constitution. Today, Iran has a population of 75 million + and is a founding member of United Nations as well as several other groups. 


France

France does not have an official date of independence, according to CIA, but on October 4, 1958, the Fifth French Republic was established. 

Luckily for France, they were never the subjects of another country, so technically, they never "became" independent, they always were. France was a place that ruled a bunch of countries, the last one gaining independence being Vanuatu in 1980. The debate whether or not let Algeria become independent almost evolved  in a civil war. The Fifth Republic has a strengthened Presidency.  Now-a-days, France is a European leader when it comes to culture, economy, military, and politics. France also has a large supply of nuclear weapons. 

Mexico

Mexico achieved independence in the the early 19th century, to be exact it was September 16, 1810.

The Aztecs were all living in Mexico before they were conquered by the Europeans.  Hernán Cortés was the man who established Mexico and took over it.  It is located in North America and borders America and Guatemala. 



Germany

Was established on January 18 of 1871.

Before Germany declared their independence the Holy Roman Empire ruled them.  There were many other countries under this rule, and all of them eventually established into a country rather than being under the Holy Roman Empire.  Germany is in Europe and borders Poland Beligium, France, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.








Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia was established on September 23, 1932, this is the modern Saudi state, bu the first colony was founded in the 18th century.

This country is also known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  This country was founded by Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, after Muhammad's death.  Saudit Arabia borders






United Kingdom

United Kingdom was officially independent on April 12, 1927.

The country used to rule many other countries and covered a large amount of land (but not half).  They never actually had anyone rule them, it was just the reverse.  United Kingdom in located in Europe and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.

Nuclear War

So.... I got another 100% on the pop test! YAY!  This one was worth 52 points also, the only other one who got a perfect score was Doori. For me, I think it's a little bit of luck also, but who knows.  Anyway we talked about the test and went over all of the questions, this took the whole class, it was all we went over.  We did talk about Cuba and Iran and Israel for a long time, especially about the nuclear bombs and the closest we've ever been to a nuclear war with Russia.  We both had thousands of bombs, but we weren't doing anything with them, just holding on to them.  Since the weird horrible dumb leader in Cuba took over, he offered Russia to set up their bombs in their country which is only 90 miles from Florida.  We ended up finding out about this and then it was stopped.  Also how Mr. Schick used to live right next to the APG site and then moved away from that, near a nuclear power plant.  Stinks to think that if it blew up, we'd all die.

Surprise Test

We have a test today that no one was prepared for, but we were allowed to use our blog.  YAY! I studied in the beginning and still, that wouldn't have done me any good.  For the first page, I'm proud of my self, I didn't you my blog for it at all!  Anyway, it was just on who the leaders, facts about them, and they countries they govern.  I would say I got a 95%, after the test I went over my Health PowerPoint because we were supposed to present it next class, but that didn't happen.  For the rest of class I just was on my computer.  Evan was the last one to finish with like 2 minutes of class left.  Oh, and so I looked up the water bottle that Mr. Schick has called "Dopper", I google imaged it and I found one!  But sadly, it's not green like his is, only blue.

More Countries

Everyone seemed to change seats and it got really annoying actually, Doori started crying again but not much and she had enough will-power to control herself so that's good.  Oh, and Mr. Schick had the COOLEST water bottle every, I asked about it yesterday but he ignored the question so today I figured it out.  It had a weird cap because it can turn into a cup also!  I really want one, it was probably pretty expensive even though he got it for free.  (Sadly, I couldn't find a picture on the web) :(  Any way we talked about the countries more and said anything that wasn't mentioned yesterday, and I found out that England are basically are greatest alias.  David Cameron graduated Oxford in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, so they're doing pretty well right now.  Oh, and Xaviar had a shadow named Christian, and CJ in my Advisory said he raised him so he calls him his "lil brother".  But really they're just cousins.  An so, yeah all we did was talk more about the countries and I don't have to write it down since I added it to my other blog down below during class. :)

Coup d'etat

Coup d'etat means like overthrowing a government by force and within.  We just went over the homework from the last night and certain people told everybody what they had gathered, and every country we talked about they had to find it on the little world globe thing.  Oh, Mason got a 100% on the test! Alex, Liam and I did too.  I was very surprised to, because I didn't study at all, I just mainly put names in the countries that sounded like it was right.  For example: the Saudi Arabia one I said it was the "bin" guy because Osama "bin" Laden was from Saudi Arabia.  The Indian President was voted best finance manager in the world in 2010, says Liam.  I did not see that at all during my research and what-not.  Doori and Grace were confused, because they thought the other was doing a different one when in reality they did the same, so yeah.  OH MY GOLLY GOSH, Jake had another shadow, I have no clue how or why but that was like his fifth or something.  We spent a while watching Jake attempt to say one of the leader's name, and it was painful.  Besides that we just went over the homework.

A Little about the Leaders

We worked on this in class for the majority of our time.  (Oh and if my blog looks weird, it's not my fault, it's still acting stupid, not don't mind me).


Dilma Rousseff-Brazil

• She worked in the government but never held a office.  This experience in the government probably was better for her because it helped her to become acclimated to what actually happens in the government.  It would help her to obtain many people opinions from the inside before she was elected President of Brazil, and she is also very familiar with Barzil's corridors of power.
• Also during a corruptions scandal that brought down major key figures she was elected Chief of Staff, then later she was elected President.  She went to jail for a coup d'etat and was tourtured.  It was Padarara, unique and horrible.  Don't want to write what it is.  So, yeah. EW.

President-Elect Enrique Peña Nieto-Brazil

• Has plans to establish a special paramilitary police force to fight the drug cartels.
• Had been working for the state government and PRI before he ran for presidency. 

Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud-Saudi Arabia

• Was crowned Commander of National Guard, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Prince and then King.
•  Recently granted women the right to vote in local elections. WHOOOOO!

Angela Merkel-Germany

• She is currently ranked as the world's fourth most powerful person by the Forbes magazine, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman
• She was awarded the Grand Cross of hte Order of Merit of the Federal Rpublic of Germany and the honorary doctorate from Leipzig Univerity.

Bejamin Netanyahu-Israel

• He leads a governing coalition dominated by right-wing and religious parties. 
• He trained as a combat soldier and became a team leader in an elite special forces unit of the IDF, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

Hu Jintao-China

• To the public eye he possesses a low-key and reserved leadership style, and is reportedly a firm believer in consensus-based rule.
• Was a construction Department of Gansu as a secretary, vice senior chief, Communist Youth League Gansu Branch Secretary, and was appointed as the director of the All-China Youth Federation.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-Iran

• Comes from a poor family, and has a modest life. (This is a good quality if he is a President), but is bad because it is unclear whether Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participated in the takeover of the embassy.
• He attended Iran University that Ahmadinejad became politically active.

Hamad Karzai-Afghanistan

• Hamid Karzai served as deputy foreign minister in the Mujahedeen transitional government.
• Declined the post to the US ambassador.
• Taliban was incharge of Afghanistan before Hamad Karzai

François Hollande-France

• Worked for Max Gallo who is the press secretary to former prime minister Pierre Mauroy.
• Lost his seat to the National Assembly but regained it four years later.

Pranab Mukherjee-India

• He has authored five books, in his lifetime.
• managed the successful election campaign for independent candidate Krishna Menon during the by-elections in Midnapore

Hugo Chavez-Venezuela

• Studied at the Venezuelan Academy of Military Sciences in Caracas.  Was in the first class and was following a Restructured Curriculum.
• Was imprisoned for trying to overthrow the government.

David Cameron-United Kindom

• Stayed in the Conservative Party for five years after graduating.
• Was given an amazing education and excelled in school. Graduated from Oxford, graduated with a Philosoghy, Politics and Economics.

Queen Elizabeth II of England

• Received a private education at home.
• She also hold the name  Defender of the Faith and it is in the full title.

Reviewing Test

We handed out test today! I got 81%, so I didn't get a bell, but oh well.  We went over the test and some of us took a while, but Mr. Schick sped through a few of them just to move it along more quickly because he though class ended at thirty after but it was really forty after.  So when we completed the test we went over the Political Geography and my thing kept messing up.  It's actually doing it right now, it is like my mouse constantly have something attached to it and it wont let it go so it keeps messing up the stuff.  It is very aggravating.  I wrote on all my tests because we are allowed to keep them for the final in December.  I am not looking forward to that but I am happy to know that I won't be freaking out studying during my break which is nice.  My sisters were always a wreck, but my old school have midterms before break also.

Political Geography

Mexico

Federal Republic

President Enrique Peña Nieto

United States of America

Constitution-Federal Based Republic

Barack Obama

China

Communist Based

President Hu Jintao

Afghanistan 

Islamic Republic

President Hamid Karzai

Israel

Liberal Democracy, Parliamentary system

President Shimon Peres

Iran

Theocratic Republic

Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad

India

Federal Republic

President Pranab Mukherjee

Germany

Federal Republic

Chancellor Angela Merkel

France

Semi-Presidential System, Unitary State, Constitutional Republic

President François Hollande

Brazil 

Federal Republic

President Dilma Rouseff

Saudi Arabia

Monarchy

Prime Minister Abdullah

Venezuela

Federal Republic

President Hugo Chavez

United Kindom

Constitutional Monarchy & Common Wealth Realm

Prime Minister David Cameron

Class Day!

When we got into class there was paint that Evan brought in.  So I decided to put some on my face without even realizing “Oh it said were not allowed to wear face paint today” Oh well I put it on and it looked fantastic.  Actually Maddie put it on my and I put some on Maddie.  Then I ended up using the mirror on my computer and put some more paint on my lips.  It looked odd, but I kept it anyway, School Spirit!  Then I just like reviewed some of the stuff for the test Friday, and that was it because it was a fun class.

Questions for Test

Jake yet again had another shadow!  It actually very impressive, especially seeing that it's Jake.  Anyway his name was Dylan, but Mr. Schick nick-named him "Shark Boy" because he was bit by a shark in Ocean City.  I missed a lot of it because I had to use the potty.  The entire class we discussed questions that should be on the test and I had some really good ones!  I'm not so sure others liked them though.  I don't remember any of the questions that were requested but I do know that I wanted to do the tricky ones, but everybody kept dissing that idea.  Switching the spelling though would be a really good idea.  We talked about what the quiz was going to be, it's all Religions and the culture, because most of us thought it was just religions.  There was a question that was about Columbus, the Vikings and the Native Americans.  OHHHH, the BEST part: Doori was laughing for no reason apparently and then started actually crying.  It was really funny, she did it twice.

Jake actually had a Shadow

Jake actually had a shadow on Friday which caused things to get started a little bit later.  His name was Franco, he does soccer with Jake (so I guess he's good) and Jake said he's really smart.  That's all I remembered about Franco though.  Mr. Schick actually asked him a few questions, and he got them right! I'm not so sure how well the rest of us would have done.  We looked over the world religions and were so close to finishing.  Most of the PowerPoint was basically on Buddha and how he was actually stick thin in real life, instead of really fat.  That was interesting actually, and we talked about Nirvana a good bit.  On the low part of the spectrum are like bugs and stuff, but I don't see anything wrong with being a bug.  They have no worries except to watch out for things that want to kill them.  We didn't do much for Hinduism and what because its hard for Mr. Schick to find anything on it, oh and Kishan taught a little bit of another section because his mom is Hindu.  Then we looked at Judaism and it is a really small religion, only 14-16 million people in the world practice it and most of them are in Israel or spread between America and Canada.  That's basically all we learned and talked about in class on Friday.

More Information

So we actually just went over the PowerPoint all class.  I actually did the silent thing where the people with red tape on them had to do, but i have no clue what it was for, I was just silent the whole class.  It was really hard, I feel bad for people who had to not talk ALL day.  That sucks.  We almost finished the PowerPoint, there was like one left, if that, but we finished Islam, I believe we did not finish Buddhism though.  We then talked about all the extremest, oh, also and how the one guy (forget his name) was stuck in his house until he was 29, and was supposed to be king but wanted to help others.  Also talked about Nirvana and how it is the best of the best.  We get side-tracked a lot also, like usual.

PowerPoint

We went over some of the PowerPoint and talked about the Hutu and Tutsi Tribes who dominated over practically all of the other tribes around them.  Turns out though, the Hutu's were the number one tribe and persecuted the Tutsi's.  Ethnic heritage can united or conflict people, in this case it caused conflict between Rwanda and Burundi.  US and Switzerland have been two successful countries and peacefully merged many ethnic groups.  Korea and Japan and other places on the other hand aren't too similar because most of all the   people there have Japan or Korean back-rounds.  We got side tracked a lot so that took a while, but when we got on the religion blog thing, we discussed all the questions.  I don't need to put them down because they are all in a blog that is a couple scrolls down from this one.

Mr. Perry

Mr. Schick wasn't in class on Friday so we had Mr. Perry as the sub.  It was actually all quite amusing, Matt yawned without covering his mouth, so he had to stand on his chair and yawn ten times covering his mouth.  Also, whenever Damon would make scoffs or sighs Mr. Perry would look up and ask if he was alright.  It seemed most of us were scared of him so the entire class it was quite.  All we did was work on the assignment that was posted on the blog for the entire class period.  I got done only about two religions when class ended, so the rest was my homework for tonight.  So, I did have a little bit of homework for this class, but on the plus side it was really funny to see Mr. Perry yell at the boys for slouching and etc. so you should have him for a sub more often. (But don't worry he's not as cool as you).

Religions

Christianity

Christianity was founded in the first century in Palestine by the disciples of Jesus.  Christianity is the worship of only one God, so this is Monotheism.  Christianities holy book is the Bible, and it also claims to be possible the largest religion with 1.7 people who are Christians.  The central figure of this religion is God/Jesus.  For the geographical concentration, I have no idea what it mean so when I looked it up it gave me nothing.  Then after lots more searching it said that it is where the most amount of those people live per capita.  When I finally found it, it told me that United States was the country with the most Christians  and that is a reliable source and it sounds good.

Islamic

The Islamic Religion was founded in the seventh century by Muhammad, and was founded in what is now Saudi Arabia.  This religion is also monotheistic, they believe that there is no God worthy of worship except for Allah.  Yes, Islamic religion does have a holy book, and it is called Quran. There is about 1.57 billion followers of this religion.  Most of the followers are in middle east, such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan etc.

Buddhism

Buddhism was founded in the sixth century in India.  Buddhism is basically monothestic because it is all only Buddha, the central figure of the religion, even though there may be more than one form of him.  There is no actual holy book for this religion, there are between 300 and 500 million followers. Ninety-five percent of Buddhist live in Thailand.

Hinduism

Hinduism was founded in India in the early 1500's.  This religion is polytheistic, they do not really have a main worshiper because it is polytheistic, so they just worship all of the goddesses and gods.  They have several holy books, one being Vedas.  It is the third largest religion in the world, with 900 million followers.  Most Hindu's are found in India.

Judaism 

Judaism is one of the oldest religions today that are still in existence.  There is no exact date of when it was founded but people believe it was during 2000 BC, and was founded in Israel.  This religion is also monotheistic, and their central figure would be God, they believe that God is in existence.  Their holy book that they worshiped is called the Torah.  There are about 14 million followers in the world today, while the majority of them are still in the place where it first started, Israel.

Cultural Geography

Apparently this past class was supposed to be one that would make our blog gigantic.  Who knows?  Anyway we took notes from a PowerPoint about Cultural Geography.  The characteristics are the parts of a group’s everyday life, the ideas and themes which the group teaches and they can link or divide a region.  Three examples of this are language, religion and ethnic heritage.  I had no idea that English is the number one world language, I thought it was mandarin but the most amount of people speak that language, but isn't necessarily the world language.  Also, Canada is a bilingual nation: French and English.  The French wanted to for a new country but that obviously didn't happen.  I wonder why Switzerland has multiple languages but no controversy; it's just such a happy place.  France apparently is our biggest ally and also that Brazil might be the only South American county that doesn't speak Spanish.  With the Ethnic Heritage one Yugoslavia had so many ethnic groups, but one their leadership died out all of the ethnic groups broke out and caused many civil wars amongst.  I never knew that America didn't go to Moscow in 1982 because of a political disagreement!  That would make SO many people mad.  Also, apparently fighting will stop  countries for the Olympics, why don't they just compete that way instead of slaughtering everybody; it seemed to have worked, because for that time it is stopped.  That was when we ran out of time and the bell rang.

Presenting Power Points!

First thing first, Maheer and Jake played with a slinky while a bowl-like thing was used to make noise.  Once we got settled we pulled out our PowerPoints and presented!  The First to go were the Native Americans, from their presentation I learned that they cam during the ice age period which was 12,000 to 17,000 years ago.  Also, they migrated south over time, from what the map said, it said that they came from Siberia (don't know if that's completely true though) went through Alaska, down into Canada and to North America.  So basically came through present day Alaska, Canada and North America.  There were no other people there when the Native Americans came, and weren't sent by anyone also.  The only time they fought was when the Europeans came.  Lastly about the Native Americans is that they took great care of the lands and worshiped it.  Then my group went and we told everybody about the Vikings,  they didn't stay long because they landed where the land wasn't so great, and would have been a lot up upkeep.  So they left shortly after their arrival, but there are still Viking sites that you can visit.  When we finished the Columbus group went, and that was the majority of the boys (so you can imagine how this turns out).  So in 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria came, they landed in the Bahamas and loved it. (Originally they were aiming to go to India)  Native Americans were already there, but Columbus went back to England told everybody what he found and quickly said back to conquer the Mayans.  He won, but in the presentation the boys said that he didn't conquer them, and something like there was no one there when the English arrive.  Which by-the-way is completely false.  So their PowerPoint was ehh, but the other two were fantastic.  After the presentations we looked at a map of what people in America call soft drinks.  A bunch of states/counties call it pop.  While most of the east cost call it soda.  Much of the south calls it coke, we also looked at Nevada because they have so many people calling it so many different things.  This is because when people migrated to Nevada, they didn't want to change their culture and so carried on calling it what they wanted.  (120,464 people were interviewed for this).  That was the end of our Tuesday's class.

First to Discover America

We got our test back in class today, and I got a bell! (I got an A)  We went over all of the test answers and I only got one wrong, and one word misspelled, which was Syracuse (I spelled it without and 'e' at the end).  So, overall I was happy with with my score.  Out of all the three sections we had the lowest average, but we got the second most amount of A's.  Our section got and 82.6% average with 7 A's, and 4 failing grades, section 2 got and average of 86.8% and 8 A's and no fails.  Section 3 beat us by .1 average!  They only had 4 A's, but only 2 fails.  Once the test was over Mr. Schick pulled up Eryn's Blog.  This was from 6 days ago, and had lots of information, and was used as the "perfect" example.  We also talked about the discovery of America, who really discovered America?  Not Columbus, he just got all the credit for it because he went back to England, told everyone and said "Look what I discovered!"  Hudson was before him, and the Vikings were before both of them!  We sectioned ourselves into three groups and worked on a PowerPoint about three people to look up, we had the vikings but I cannot remember any besides the vikings.  While doing this research I learned that the vikings arrived in 1000 AD, and even though they slaughtered people/enemies they took care of their land very well.  Also that they named their ships. Supposedly, there was about 20-30 million Native Americans living in America before anyone got there.  The Indians/Mayans/Native Americas were really smart too, because they could perform eye surgeries etc.  What we didn't finish of the PowerPoint was homework.

Movie Test

I completely forgot we had a test on Friday actually.  Thankfully though, we got to take fifteen minutes before-hand to review our notes.  I tried to study all my notes best as I could.  When the fifteen minutes were up, we sat in our seats, and he announced that we were allowed to use our blog to take the test.  I did put most of my information in there but I didn't have have everything written down in it.  Overall though I felt I only got one or two wrong, and no words misspelled. I was one of the last people to finish but we everyone had to be completely quiet while others were finishing. (Some people don't know how to be quiet though).  When the test was done we talked about how we all though we did, (one question everybody was uncertain about though)  he never did tell us what the answer was though.  Our discussion ended when the bell rang, and that was how our Friday class was.

Plausible Websites?

Section 3 added lots more websites to the document so there was about four pages!  Anyway, after we were told how disappointed he was we talked about which websites were solid and we liked.  There were several but I can only remember two:  Mercy Corps and The Water Project for Sudan.  These and a couple others would be the ones for us to actually do something.  We also discussed why they would be good, for example, the Water Project one actually helps the people learn and do things, not just give them food and water in front of them.  Then there were some bad ones which I only remember the Gabriel's Dream one.  Pat didn't like his choice and explained why.  Our class is trying to do something that will help the Lost Boys, we wanted to have John Dau to come and talk to us but that is too expensive, so maybe Skype!  Another option would be to go to other schools, show them the movie and inform them.  All of us want to either do a walk, Skype or go to schools.  Our entire class was the discussion since it wasn't one of the longer classes.

More Lost Boys Research

There was a quick discussion about the websites we found last night and what we could do.  Apparently our section was the class that was the most excited about doing something for the lost boys.  After that we got in four groups to try and find more.  There was an assignment online that all of us could type on and post the websites we found for the Lost Boys.  That took so much effort seeing as there was lots of annoying people who put their names in everything, deleted them, etc.  After he asked us if we could do better, we all did it one more time. Finally we got it all done, with the wrong and deleted and everything else on the page.  We found several websites that were good!  Once was The Lost Boys Foundation, Water Project for Sudan, Alliance for the Lost Boys, Sudan Foundation, and Outreach Africa: The Lost Boys Foundation.  These were just from our group, there were many others.  That is all we did in class today.

The Really Long Class

When the bell rang for class to get started today, we talked about how class went on Friday without Mr. Schick there.  Then only for five minutes (A timer was set) we would talk about the blogs, why were people not blogging?  Every week the ratio has gone down and he made it clear that we need, to do them, and it is an easy way to get points.  Then we went on to watch the movie.  From what we watched today was that all of the lost boys me up at a reunion, but John was getting mad at some of them because they weren't sending money and helping their people back in Ethiopia.  Also, that they were dressing like "Americans" and "Gangsta's"  and just too worried about cars and those sorts of things.  (The Dinka tribe is where they were all from.  Very tall people.)  John met up with his mother and sister and in the airport they started crying.  His mom was on the ground crying, then doing this loud scream type thing to express he joy, also, throughout the airport she was dancing.  Panther is going to Africa to build a school in Sudan since he has his high school diploma and his associates degree.  Also, he went mainly to marry the woman he loves, so he did.  John is helping his family and people constantly even while he wants to open a medical clinic.  John has his bachelor's degree at Syracuse, and is the president of the Lost Boys Foundation.  Sadly, Daniel never found his family, but he joined the Job Corps and is supporting himself.  After the movie we had some discussion about what we as freshman students could do to help the Dinka tribe and people who are in those refugee camps.   Some things I have come up with are listed below:

• Donate Money to the refugee camps or the foundation of Lost Boys
• Send Supplies
• Go to Sudan and Physically help out
• Go to events and walks (if they are near)
• Sponsor events
• Get other people involved
• Spread the Information!

No Mr. Schick

Mrs. Stathes subbed for us today but we got still watched the movie.  In the begging we talked about what the movie was about and told Mrs. Stathes what happened.  That took about twenty minutes, and she told us to write some things down, so once she found the movie we put it in.  In the movie the three men are full U.S citizens and are on their own.  All of them have found jobs, but sadly Panther went missing one time and then was placed in a mental hospital.  But besides that John was going to college, realized his family is alive, dropped out and it working three jobs.  I forget where we ended but all we did Friday was take some notes and watch more of the movie.

More Movie

We watched more of the video about Sudan and its civil war.  We started at the part where Panther, Daniel and John Bul Doa got on the plane with others and left for America.  They took a small plane to I forget, and then a big plane to I forget also, then America.  It was kind of funny how they acted in the plane, especially since they didn’t know how to work electricity, what they should eat, and how to shut the bathroom door.  When they were served their food on the plane they didn’t know that the butter and mayonnaise go on things so they ate everything separately, EW.  They even thought that it tasted really bad.  When they got off the plane and had to use the escalators they had no idea what to expect and how to walk on it, so they were all anxious to get off.   When they were taken into their houses to show them around they had to be shown to use the electricity, toilets, refrigerators, soap, shower, etc.  When they were interviewed they all talked about how they really missed their family brothers back home and it’s hard for them to be happy when they know their family is not living the life they are.  Also they have to pay the government back for the air travel when they get their jobs in three months.

Cookies

When we walked into class we each got a cookie!  Apparently his advisory at 37 or so.  But, we got our tests back in class today.  If Mr. Schick rang the little bell on his cart, it means you got an "A", if not then, well, you got below a 90%.  I got a bell!  It was actually really funny at first because we all were like, "oohh", or eeehh" when someone didn't, but then, he told us to still be positive.  We reviewed the entire test and went over the answers.  It was HILARIOUS when Damon thought that the push and pull factors were about Canada, so he wrote down answers along the lines of "It is cold".  When we finished going over the test we watched some more of the movie, it took us a little while to get started, so we only watched about 15 minutes of it.  It was basically how the boys didn't want to leave, and they were unsure because they didn't know how to use electricity, what showers looked like, etc.  The boys they were leaving were like family, so it was difficult.  We basically did just that in class today.

First Test!

We had our first test today in Human Geography.  Surprisingly it was not hard, a lot easier than I thought so that was good! First thing we did though is go over the prayers and still there are several who just don't know it and others who just try and be funny my saying something else.  During a there is NO talking when anyone has a test on their desk, so when he put it on a desk everybody shut up.  After the test there a little time of waiting because some weren't finished with it.  When everybody finished with it we talked about what we were going to be doing with the second chapter.  From what he said it’s going to be about Sudan.  We watched a video about the war between South Sudan and North Sudan.  Before the war started everyone was doing well because there was rich soil, plenty of water, and animals to eat.  When they started fighting over the oil and religion, the Muslims just decided to wipe everyone out.  So what they did was everyone and lock children in houses and burn them down.  (Idiots)  The video we watched though was specifically about three boys and theirs stories to survive the war.  27,000 boys started out walking from Sudan to Ethiopia and when they finished the trek of over 1,000 miles, there were only 12,000 survivors.  The UN decided to set up refugee camps and taught the boys math, science and english.  Sadly though, there wasn't enough for the boys to learn for 10 years (how long the war lasted).  The United States agree to take some in so they could have new starts in America.  So the boy Daniel we were listening to is being sent to Pittsburgh with his friend.  That's about where we got to, and so then the bell rang and that was the end of class.

Presentations

In Friday's class we were told that he test was moved to Monday, thankfully.  This was because we weren't done with all the presentations.  Doori and her group went, Daniel's did too, but that's all of the people I can remember.  I believe Nigeria took the longest time, so USA had to rush through theirs, then the bell rang.  In our conversations, we played the song, "The Edge of Glory" by Lady Gaga.  I think someone sang a line from it because everyone seemed to sing it too when Nick played it on his laptop.  Somewhere in between, we talked just a little bit about the test, and make sure to study.  Also, we talked about mid-quarters, and to make sure you get all of your late and current work in and updated before the end of to day.  (Which reminds me, this is late, lo siento).

Presentations

Our group was the first to present our country information to the class.  It was Italy and luckily for Italy, they are doing really well.  It is a developed country and they are gaining more immigrants, so they have much more pull factors.  Jake and I went up to the front of the room to present the slideshow.  Erin and Alex were at their seats and were finding more information that was helpful to the discussion.  Once we finished, Liam and Matt when up to present theirs .  Nigeria is a developing country and has a lot of problems.  They also have a high number a deaths and a high number a births.  It was actually a really good presentation.  The third group was Dori's and we got a little bit through the presentation when the bell rang, and that was the end of class.  (Their country is India)

Google Presentation

Today in class we got in groups and started working on our PowerPoint Presentations for tomorrow.

Powerpoint

We went over a PowerPoint that was supposed to be extremely boring.  Thankfully it was not as bad as he said it would be.  We took notes on a lot of rates and discussed why the population has been rising so drastically since 1960.  "Baby boom" was right after WWII and we won so the men came home and within a few years there were so many babies.  When Mr. Schick grew up most every kid in his family had 4 or 5 brothers/sisters.  Now its very few amount of people who have over 4.  Also, women live longer! For two reasons though: they have jobs that aren't as dangerous, and they are mostly inside.  We also talked about the TFR (Total Fertility Rate), which is 2.1.  If Mr. Schick were to ask anyone of his students in the hallway "What is the TFR" nine out of ten would automatically reply "2.1".  Besides that we just wrote down information in our note books.

Evacuation and Future

In Class Friday we didn't do much work, but we did go over the evacuation plan for the day and what we would be doing.  Everybody seemed to have questions, and sadly most of the questions were instances that would never happen or were odd.  That took up a good half of the class and then we got on the topic of how we liked the video and what we thought was the most interesting.  We got on the topics of internet dating and how creepy it is and also how technology will be considerably different when we are adults.  Maybe there would be a type of chip in you head and if you look at someone they would connect with the chip and hear what the want you to hear. Oh my God that would be the coolest thing if it were real right now.  Also that currently there is a computer/keyboard thing that is just a little black box and it shines a light on a flat surface for you to type.  I can only imagine how much they cost. :(

Wednesday's Class

We went over the last little bit of homework and had some discussions about that.  We somehow got on the topic of sex and Damon asked why people in sub-Africa have sex if they know they will get HIV/AIDS.  Mr. Schick did best he could by not getting into too much detail while still explaining that it was a human desire and sometimes our desire overpowers our common sense.  So, people are still getting pregnant even if they cannot afford the children.  Though, some crazy people think that if you have a bunch of kids its OK because some will die because of starvation, etc.  In a sane mind having one kid would be the smart choice.  After that we watched a video and when Mr. Schick tried to turn on the projector he said something along the lines of, "You're all going to see me fall off this stool and break my neck."  Anyway, that was funny because we all talked about how we would put it in our blog and not call for help (Not like we would actually do that)  The video was about technology and how everything has increased and what technology will be like in the future.  During that video he told us to find 2 facts that were interesting to us.  Mine are:

How China will soon be the number English speaking country in the world.  That is so weird seeing as their language is Chinese and ours is English.  Also that people are preparing students for jobs that don't exist and technologies that haven't been invented in order to solve problems that we don't know are problems yet.  How would they know how to prepare them, if no one knows what to prepare them for?

9/11

We first went over our homework which took up most of the class time.  Every question was talked about and discussed.  We also were given candy if he liked our choices for the most important ones.  But, like usual for our class, we got side tracked A LOT.  So, in between many of the homework questions we asked other questions.  From these discussions we learned that it was Mr. Schick's first year of teaching at John Carroll when the twin towers were struck.  One of his students asked him if it was the beginning of a WWIII.    At that time, nobody knew the answer.  Also that there was a study where 90% of all items in Wal-mart are made in China-China is the #1 exporting country in the world.  There was one discussion where the leader of Venezuela called Former President, George W. Bush a devil!  (Venezuela doesn't like us.)  For the whole class we basically talked over the blog questions.

CIA

We went to the CIA website and looked at how to get information on countries-reliable information.  First we just picked a country and looked through it.  This is what we did with several.  We also talked about how Somalia is a horrible place and Mr. Schick said, I quote, "I would rather be in North Korea than Somalia"  When we went to Pakistan we talked about how Osama Bin Laden was hiding there a few blocks away from the military base.  Also that we pay them one billion dollars a year and still they kept a secret like that from us.  But we still pay them the billion a year because otherwise worse, unimaginable things would happen (possibly a WWIII)  since they border India, whom they hate, and Afghanistan.  If there are high infant mortality rates then that means there is corruption and bad health care.  For the majority of the class we search around CIA and read information about certain countries.

Question for CIA

What is the population of the United States?

• 313,847,465 people in the United States

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

1. China 
2. India 
3. America
4. Indonesia
5. Brazil

What is the population of Pakistan?

• 190,291,129 people in Pakistan

What kind of government does the United States have?

• Constitution-based on federal republic; strong democratic tradition

What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?

• 24.9% total

What is the largest country in the world by area?

• Russia

What has the third greatest number of airports?

• Mexico

What country has the greatest number of exports?

• China

What country exports more oil than any other?

• Saudi Arabia

What country imports more oil than any other?

• United States

What country consumes more oil than any other?

• China

Can women serve in combat roles in China?

• Yes

What is GDP?

• Gross Domestic Product-The value of all goods and services produced by a country in a given year.

What country has the most GDP per capita (per person), and how much is it?

• Liechtenstein, at $141,100 

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

• No

Most countries with the highest birthrate can be found in what continent?

• Aftrica

What other country is in the top ten?

1. Niger
2. Uganda
3. Mali
4. Zambia
5. Burkina Faso
6. Ethiopia
7. Somalia
8. Burundi
9. Malawi
10. Republic of the Congo

Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths?

• Number 18

Is the US #1 in used of cellular phones?

• No

What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

• 23.9%

What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

• 76.5%

What is the Net Migration Rate?

• It is the difference of emigrates and immigrants of an area

Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the World?

• No

What is the current population of the entire world?

• 7,021,836,029 people in the entire world.

I as an American citizen find "Which country consumes more oil than any other" and "The unemployment rate in countries" because oil is a limited product and society bases most of its needs on oil.  Also it does not get recycled and it destroys the oxygen we breath.  Unemployment rate is important because people without jobs do not get any money.  Money pays for food, clothes, shelter, etc.  Without these basic needs, you die.