I forgot to do my blog yesterday. I think I forgot because on Friday we went to Gettysburg and on Saturday we were doing winter cleaning. I am happy that I will not get points off for doing the incorrect format. I would have been mad if hours of work would have been pointless because I incorrectly formatted a paper. I am also happy with my test grade and was surprised I got a 100, I thought I would at least get one wrong. I think my essays are very well written and I believe  that they are the best essays I have ever written. I am currently in the library studying for exams and grammar is proving to be very difficult. I will hopefully be able to do well because I know everything else very well. I am also not to worried about biology but I am still going to review in case I forgot a topic.

Today in class we worked our essays. I am already done my first essay so I was able to finish the first two paragraphs of my second essay in class. I reread the format for the paragraphs of the essays and I do not understand how I am am able to do option A in the correct format were you have a introduction ,then state 3 points, then a conclusion paragraph. Option a asks for you to state the migration policies for three separate countries. I described the policies for the three countries in each of the three body paragraphs. I do not know of a better way to do this so I hope I do not get points deducted off my exam score because of this.

I think I did very well on the test. I always become super worried while studying for these tests and I was up until 1:00 studying for it. It payed of though and I am starting to relies that you would do good on these tests as long as you pay attention in class. I have finally finished one of the essays and I am finding it much more difficult to do the essays then I originally thought. In my opinion, none of the questions really grabbed my attention so I am not really interested in what I am writing. It would be interesting for the final exams if we could make our own essay question so we would be more passionate on what we are writing. It might also be more fun to grade for you because would be able to hear everyone's opinions and the essays would probably have more content. I found writing my essay that I was struggling to get it to five paragraphs. For peer editing tomorrow, I will most likely only have one done. I also have to do my essay for English and that is due tomorrow. I might be able to finish both but I do not want to get so little sleep two knights in a row. I also have to study for a biology test that is tomorrow. I am not to worried about it but I am still going to go over my notes, so finishing both essays by tomorrow is unlikely.

• Mexico's border with the U.S.
• Views from U.S recognize motives that compel unauthorized immigrants to enter illegally.
• Employment opportunities
• Family reunification
• better way of life
• View of mexico is more complex
• Residents of norther mexico wish for compassion yo be shown to unauthorized immigrants
• Residents of southern mexico are less tolerant because the number of immigrants entering Mexico from Guatemala
• Immigration concerns in the U.S.
• Border patrol-
• They would like more effective border patrol but would not want to spend the money necessary to have that
• workplace- 
• Most recognize that immigrants take jobs from U.S. citizens, but they understand most citizens wouldn't take the jobs so they support the path to the U.S citizenship for these immigrants.
• U.S citizens favor letting law enforcement officials stop and verify the legal status of everyone, but they fear civil rights will be infringed upon of U.S citizens, a a result of racial profiling.
• Local Initiatives
• Polls suggest U.S Citizens believe unauthorized immigration is a pressing matter but should only be dealt with at the federal level not the local.
• Many were apposed to Arizona's 2010 that obligated foreigners to carry a proof if citizenship with them at all times.
• Over 100 localized cities across the nation support additional rights for immigrants called sanctuary cities.
• Immigration Concerns in Europe
• Population growth in Europe is fueled by immigration from other regions of the world, a trend disliked by many Europeans.
• Biggest fear is that the host country’s culture will be lost, because immigrants-
• adhere to different religions
• speak different languages
• practice different food and cultural habits
• Hostility to immigrants has become a central plank of some political parties in many European countries.
• Immigrants blamed for crime, unemployment rates, and high welfare costs.
• practice different food and other cultural habits
• Immigration Concerns in Europe
• Population growth in Europe is fueled by immigration from other regions of the world, a trend disliked by many Europeans.
• Biggest fear is that the host country’s culture will be lost, because immigrants:
• adhere to different religions
• speak different languages
• practice different food and other cultural habits
• Hostility to immigrants has become a central plank of some political parties in many European countries.
• Immigrants blamed for crime, unemployment rates, and high welfare costs.

• countries have adopted selective immigration policies
• Preference shown for specific employment placement and family reunification
• Passing of the quota act in 1921 and the National Origins Act in 1924 by the U.S congress marked the end of unrestricted immigration to the U.S
• More seek admission to the U.S than is permitted by the quotas thus preferences are shown toward

1. Family Reunification
2. About 3/4 of immigrants
3. skilled workers
4. approximately 1/4 of immigrants

• Some countries alleged preferences for skilled workers contribute to brain drain- a term for disproportionate amount of highly skilled and intelligent citizens migrating away from sending countries.
• Unauthorized immigrants are those who enter countries without proper documents
• Characteristics of undocumented immigrants in the U.S
• source country
• roughly 58% emigrate from mexico
• Children
• Of estimated 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants, nearly 1 million are children.
• Unauthorized immigrants have given birth to 4.5 million children on U.S soil making the children U.S citizens.
• A illegal immigrant has a baby, that baby is called an anchor baby
• Years in the U.S
• in 2010, 35% of adults had been in the U.S for at least Fifteen years
• Distribution
• Texas and California have the largest amount of Illegal immigrants.

• Most countries have adopted selective immigration policies for certain immigrants.
• The U.N. classifies countries according to 4 types of immigration policies-
• maintain the current level of immigration
• increase the level 
• reduce the level
• no policy 
• 21 countries seek more immigrants
• 32 want less
• 116 want to maintain current level
• 25 do not have a policy
• 67 of those countries encourage highly skilled immigrants
• 14 of those countries want better family unification
• U.N found policies to increase immigration in 18 countries
• Many who cannot enter the United States enter illegally
• Those who do so are entering without proper documents and thus are called unauthorized immigrants
• Unauthorized immigrant is the term preferred by academic observers including the authoritative Pew Hispanic Center as a neutral term
• Undocumented immigrant is the term preferred by some of the groups that advocate for more rights for these individuals
• Illegal alien is the term preferred by some groups that favor tougher restrictions and enforcement of immigration laws
• In other words, the number of unauthorized immigrants entering the United States is now less than the number leaving
• The era of unrestricted immigration to the United States ended when Congress passed the quota act in 1921 and the National Origins Act in 1924.
• 12 million immigrants came to the United States between 1892 and 1955
• Ellis Island became part of the Statue of Liberty National monument in 1965
• New York and New Jersey were arguing whether Ellis Island belonged to them.  New York won.
• Quotas for individual countries were replaced with hemisphere quotas.  
• The global quota of 290,000 was set including a maximum of 20,000 per country.
• 1990 - the global quota was raised to 700,000
• The quota does not apply to refugees who are admitted if they are judged by genuine refugees
• Also admitted without limit are spouses, children and parents of U.S. citizens.
• Brain drain is large scale emigration by talented people
• Researchers, doctors and other professionals migrate to countries where they make a better use of their abilities
• 
  

• United states is inhabited overwhelmingly by direct dependents from immigrants.
• 80 million people migrated to the US between 1820 and 2015
• US had 3 main eras of immigration

1. Colonial settlement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
2. Mass European immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
3. Asian and Latin American immigration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

• U.S. population in 1790 was 3.9 million, 950000 of them were people who migrated to the colonies.
• 1790- 62 percent of immigrants came from Europe 50 percent of that came from modern day U.K. or Ireland.
• Most Africans are descendants forced to migrate to the western hemisphere. 360000 Africans were living in the U.S.
• In 1808, 250000 more were brought over
• between 1905 and 1920, 32 million people migrated to the U.S. 90% of them migrated from Europe
• 1840s and 1850s- annual immigration jumped to 200000. 3/4ths of all immigrants were from Ireland or Germany
• in the 1880s, immigration increase to 500000 per year.
• 1905-1914- immigration increases to 1 million per year.
• Immigration in the U.S. dropped in the 1930s and 40s because of the depression and ww2.
• around 13 million Latin Americans have migrated to america in the past half century, and 7 million Asians
• Mexico passed Germany in 2006 for immigration because of undocumented immigrants
• Immigrants were lured by economic opportunity and social advancements in the U.S.

I think the discussion went very well. There were many different points of view ad both sides brought up very good points. Although I did not change sides of the discussion, some points were brought up that I did not know. I was not aware of things like the limit of Asylum, where 30 people a day could enter asylum per day. I always thought it was just halted until the immigration problem was fixed. Was kind of off topic of the main discussion but the point Colin made on the different sides of news are completely opposite and you can't trust either side. This could be a completely different class discussion for another day. Back to the point, both sides had strong arguments and no side had a clear winner. I like the idea of a compromise between both sides. A lot of the time a compromise os the best answer because everyone is happy, but I do not think a compromise is possible because of how much hate is between the two political parties. So some points that were brought up that stuck out to me was that domestic violence should not be a rule in asylum because it is not the government of the country's fault. There will always be victims of domestic violence in every country including America. There can also be false claims of domestic violence and the immigrants could get in for free, which is not fair for legal immigrants who had to go through a long, expensive process to get into America. In the podcast it said that there is now immigrant screening. This is a very good idea in my opinion because as explained in the discussion, people from Isis or MS 13 could have previously got into this country after they applied for asylum under a fake domestic violence claim. Now they will be checked to see if they have any criminal background to keep the country safe. Most people applying for asylum are not criminals and would not murder someone, or rob a store, but some would, and a little good can't make up for a lot of harm. I do not know many names in my class but I felt like Colin, Trent, Sean, the girl who sits in the front middle and the girl who sits in the back left made very good points.

Tomorrow in human geo we will have a group discussion on Mexicans entering the United States of America illegally. I think it will be a interesting discussion that will hopefully not get out of hand. I just finished reading the first article which was the New York Times article which was surprisingly neutral until the end. It seems like the articles are making a big deal about the tear gas and it was cruel to use it. A quote from one of the Articles was, “We don’t even have weapons,” "We just wanted to cross" This quote was obviously from someone trying to enter the U.S illegally, and he is saying that they were defenseless against the police and did not deserve to be tear gassed. Tear gas is standard procedure for any type of riot that turns violent, in this case the immigrants were throwing objects at the border patrol. Tear gas is even used just to get people out of there house when they are getting arrested. The media is trying to make the situation MUCH worse that it already is, just making the two political parties hate each other even more. 

Today in human geo we looked up all our previous notes in a packet from the textbook. Although I liked the packet I think we should still mostly write notes. The packets are good but the  notes tell you exactly what you need to know. However, the packet will be very helpful if I missed class because of a track and field meet or I am absent. I finally got my school computer back from Microcenter. It said the fan broke but they ended up having to replace the whole motherboard so it took longer than expected. Although laptops are helpful in school, I wish schools just stayed with pencil and paper. I was hardly able to do any work for the past week because my computer was broken. The computer is also a major distraction for a lot of people in class, which can get you in trouble. They are also very expensive and some people may not be able to pay for one. It is helpful when you can check your grades and homework on Veracross but laptops in school have more cons then pros. This blog may be posted later because I have a test sized math quiz tomorrow and I was studying.

• Key Issues
• Where are migrants distributed
• Where do people migrate within a country
• Why do people migrate
• Why do migrants face obstacles
• Mobility is most generalized term that refers to all types of movement
• Journeying each day to work or school
• weekly visits to shops
• visit relatives
• Shorter and repetitive acts of mobility are refereed to as circulation
• College students moving to a college each fall and returning home each spring
• Migration- A permanent move to a location
• Net migration rate- difference between immigrants and emigrants
• Ravenstien's law is the distance that migrants typycally move.
• Most migrants relocate a short distance in the same country
• Long distance migrant who go to other countries head for cities
• Migration is divided into two categories
• International migration- permanent movement between countries
• Voluntary
• Involuntary
• Internal migration- permanent movement in a country
• Approximately 9% of the world's population are international migrants
• Global pattern reflects migration tendencies from developing to developed countries
• Net out migration- Asia, Latin america, and Africa
• Net migration- North America, Europe, and Oceania
• US has more migrants than any other country, 43 million and gaining 1 million per year.
• The eras of immigration, colonies in 18th century, European immigrants in late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Asian and Latin America immigrants in late 20th and 21st centuries.

Today in human geo we finished the worksheet we had to do and then took a quiz on it. After that we whatched a video about how America is no longer the best country in the world. I was not a big fan of the video because they kind of stereotyped Democrats and Republicans. The Democrat’s answer was Diversity, which is kind of portraying them as that is all they care about, and Republican’s answer was “Freedom and freedom” which is portraying them as overpatriotic and almost jerky, both of which are not for most of the people in America. Anyway the news anchors points were that it used to be the best country until people started doing things like as identifying themselves as what party they are in. It is true because in the 40s and 50s, some years you would vote Republican and some years you would vote Democrat because they were both valid choices. But now if you are on one side of the parties you will most likely never switch to the other. This is causing a major split in the country and especially in politics. For example, Democrats are trying to impeach President Trump, simply because they do not like him. This has caused major problems in this country and I sadly do not see this changing in the future. I guess George Washington was right about splitting into different parties would be bad for America.

Today in humangeo we watched a video about population growth and answered questions on a worksheet about it. We then discussed how the narrator's opinion on how the world is goinng onto a upward trend was incorrect to today's standards. He was saying that the population was all going to go to the top of the charts in the future which we discussed may not happen anymore. I re watched the video and I realized that a European country in 1942 life expectancy dropped below 25 years. I do not understand how this is possible, even if it were a world war. It was most likely Germany but even what they went through was nothing that could make the average life expectancy drop to 25 years. Maybe it was another country who were feeling the struggle of WW2 like Poland or France, but this number still seems very low.

So looking at the weather it seems we will have off tomorrow. It is supposed to start sleeting at seven
O clock and continue for awhile. Although I like school it would be cool to be off tomorrow. This is mostly because my computer will be gone getting repaired until Monday at least. There is also a lot of computer related work tomorrow that I will not be able to do, making me have to do my homework at home on my other computer. But if we were off tomorrow I could just do that homework over the weekend. I would bring this one to school but I do not want to damage it. We are also getting an assignment in English I am not looking forward to. We have to do a sketch of some kind which I think is very unnecessary. Why can't we just read a book over the week and then write about it? Or just learn more vocabulary words, or even do grammar.

Demographic Transition

• The process of change in a societies population from high CBR and death rates and low RNI to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low RNI, and higher total population
• Stage 1- low growth
• Very high CBR, CDR, NIR
• Stage 2- high growth
• High CBR
• Rapidly declining CDR
• Very high NIR
• Stage 3- Moderate growth
• Rapidly declining CBR
• Moderately declining CDR
• Moderate NIR
• Stage 4- low growth
• Very low CBR
• Low/ decreasing CDR
• zero or negative INR\
• Exam question- Describe the role of the  Industrial Revolution's affect and role in Demographic Transition. What phase?

• Why is global population increasing?
• About 82 people added to the population
• RNI affects the doubling time
• Components of population growth:
• total fertility rate
• TFR exceeds five in subSaharan Africa while two or less in nearly all European countries
• IMR in developed nation: 5 per 1,000
• IMR in developing nation: 80 per 1,000
• IMR is the amount of children dying per birth
• Summary of spatial patterns
• Spatial developed countries lower rates of natural increase, crude birth, total fertility, infant mortality
• developing countries higher rates of natural increase, crude birth, total fertility, infant mortality
• population structure
• fertility and mortality vary not only spatially but also temporarily within a country 
• y-axis
• age cohorts typically grouped in year intervals 
• youngest displayed at bottom and oldest displayed at top
• x-axis
• percent male displayed to the left zero
• percent female to the right of zero
• sex ratio
• number of males per 100 females
• two demo graphic transitions

Today has gone very very well, but I think now it will go very very bad... I just got home from the cross country championships and we won! The best part was we thought we did not win and when they called our name for first we all went crazy. I also got my personal record for the last race of the season. But now, I have a ton of homework. Because of the race, I missed Biology, Human Geo, and Math. I have a big biology test tomorrow and missed important review for it (thankfully Anthony sent me his notes) and I most likely missed notes for your class. I also missed the math drill and exit ticket so I will have to make that up as well. So for my homework I have to do my blog, practice speaking for my power point assignment, study for the biology test, study for my Bible test, and do my math homework, and it is currently 7:25. I hope I will be able to finish my homework but worst case Mr. Low will have mercy on me and give me a extra day to study because I missed class.

Today in human Geo we took our test on population. I think I did very well because even though I missed some notes, I remembered I could go to other people's blogs to see what notes they put down for past days. I will be missing your class tomorrow because I am leaving at eleven to go to the cross country tournament. This will probably be the last chance we have to win the tournament because all of the good runners are graduating. But because of it I will be missing biology notes that are needed for a fifty point quiz Friday. There is also a 200 point PowerPoint assignment due Friday that i am dreading because it is a speaking grade and I am horrible at speech. It was also a group assignment which makes it more stressful because I do not want to make my partner get a bad grade. I really hate group projects. They are just unnecessary and make everything harder. When I am with someone I do not know we hardly communicate on what  we have to do, and when it is with a friend we never get things done because we talk. If it is just my work I can do whatever I want and know everything I am doing.

I forgot to my blog yesterday. I guess it just slipped my mind because I had a lot to do. So I was looking at the Harford county and it took me awhile to figure out why there is a sip in people 19-25. I realized it was because there are no major colleges in Harford County. All of the college students will leave Harford county to go to a different college and when they are done college they would probably move back to harford county, explaining the dip and the rise back up. I was also looking at other country's population pyramids and I noticed a very weird one. The Middle Eastern country of Bahrain has almost double the amount of males than females. This is because a ton of male workers are either sent or bought to work at the oil rigs in Bahrain. I am worried about the test tomorrow because I missed a day of notes because I had the flu. I will hopefully be able to get notes from a friend and than I think I will be fine.

• Population Pyramids
• We use population pyramids to analyse growth or decline, fertility, mortality, and migration in cities
•  
• Christmas tree; developing nation. High birth rate, high pop growth, short life expectancy. Namibia, Bangladesh.
• The box; developed nation, slow growth, low infant mortality, slow population growth, long life expectancy. Sweden, USA.
• The cup; developed nation slow growth, low birth rate, shrinking population, long life expectancy. Italy, Japan

Today in human geography you told us what our test will be like. I am surprised on how fast this chapter went by. I am not very worried about the first part of the test but I am worried about the second part because I missed a day;s worth of notes because I was out sick. For the first section of the test we will have to answer 15 questions in the CIA world factbook in fifteen minutes. this should be easy because I was able to find most sample problems in under thirty seconds. I will hopefully be able to do well on the second part but I might have to get old notes from somebody to make sure I have what I need to study.

We did not do much in human geography today we mostly just went on Verracross to check to make sure our grades were in order for the fourth quarter and also we shared some facts we found on CIA.gov. You also mentioned how much blogs affect our grade and this is true. They do not just raise our grade but the blogs also strengthen our grade and make it harder to drop a grade level. I am overall happy with my grade and I hope I will be able to keep it next trimester.

1. Even though America is 6546254 square kilometers larger than India, India has 943 million more people. If you go to the west in America, it is very lightly populated and there is only dense population in urban or suburban areas, when India is just densely populated almost everywhere.
2. Vatican City, the smallest country, is smaller than a square kilometer. This is smaller most cities and even towns in America and it has a population of 1000.
3. America has 6,586,610 kilometers of road. I did the math and this would wrap around the Earth 164 times.
4. 98.1% of people in japan speak Japanese. This is because of Japan's loyal culture and strict immigration laws. It is also a secluded island so there can't be much illegal travel from other countries unlike countries with bordering countries.
5. .07 more males are born on Earth. This number decreases and the population gets older though because women live longer than men.

• Why do people migrate
• Push forces
• civil war
• environmental degradation
• unemployment or underemployment
• religious or ethnic persecution
• pull forces
• better economic opportunities
• better health services
• political freedom
• Total fertility rate (TFR)
• TFR- average number of children born per woman
• For population to remain the same, the TFR must be 2.1
• Higher than 2.1 population climbs
• lower than 2.1 population falls
• world TFR is 2.42

I am home sick today because of a high fever. I forgot to do my blog yesterday. I might be out sick tomorrow too.

          I just finished the Test and I am very happy with how I think I did. I did not get a 100% though because I thought El Paso may have been named that because of the Spanish presence in Texas. Other than that, I feel like I got the rest of them right. I may have made a small mistake on some of the time zone ones but I don't think I did. I am glad I studied so long because this test was definitely harder than the last one. I did like this test format better because there was less writing involved and if you are not sure of an answer you can use process of elimination to find the correct answer. I hope the rest of the tests are in this format and I am exited to learn what we are learning next.

        I am very worried about the test tomorrow. I am writing this after just studying for four hours and I am still not confident in myself. I think it will just come down to how hard the test is. If it is multiple choice with some short answers and essays I think I will do fine, but if it is mostly fill in the blank without a word box I think I will fail. I think this test seems much harder because of how much more we learned and wrote down in notes. I feel like it would be helpful if you posted the powerpoint on veracross so I could type the notes because I can't even read my own handwriting. I know most of the things about maps but I am struggling with the different types of culture. I have  to study for a English test now so I do not have time to study more geography, but hopefully I can study more in the morning or lunch.

         Even though the time we live in has some controversy, I feel like the future will be much more peaceful. About a year ago it seemed like there was going to be a WWIII because of North Korea, But now that they have agreed to denuclearize there seems to be no world changing wars in the near future. People will still probably not get along and there will be wars in the Middle East, but they will most likely end in a couple years. It would sadly be impossible if everyone in the world decided to be friends and helped each-other to populate other planets for example because of how different cultures are, But maybe we could all individually focus on inventions to help the human race or the Earth and not weapons to win a war that is not there. Problems will still be on earth such as overpopulation which will be very hard to solve because Humans will run out of food. Running out of space is not a issue because of how much land is on Earth. In the future there may also be bases on Mars. I know it sounds science fiction but we are very close to sending a man to Mars. But no one will ever be able to guess how the future will be.

• geographers study both definitions of culture.
• culture - what people care about
• specially important cultural values derive from a group's language, religion, and ethnicity
• culture - what people take care of
• the second element of culture of interest is production of material, wealth, such as food, clothing, and shelter that humans need in order to thrive and survive
• scale, space, and connections help geographers help geographers explain why similarities among places and regions do not result from coincidences
• scale is the relationship between the portion of earth being studied and earth as a whole
• globalization is a force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something worldwide in scope
• globalization of economy has been created by transitional corporations, something called multinational corporation
• the transitional corporation conducts research, operates factories, and sells products in many countries, not just where its headquarters and principle shareholders are located
• recession that began in 2008 has been called the first global recession. home buyers in the US to sales clerks in Japan were all caught in a web of falling demand and lack of credit

• Regions of culture
• Culture is the body of customary beliefs, material traits, and social forms that together constitute the distinct tradition of a group of people.
• - origin of word, culture, is "to care for"
• Two meanings-
• To care about
• To care for

• geographers identify three types of regions, Formal region, uniform region, homogeneous region
• an area where everyone shares more distinct characteristics
• common language, economic activity, climate
• characteristics may be predominant rather than universal
• functional region(not important)
• Vernacular region
• An area that people believe is part of their cultural identity
• the american south is a region of individuals recognized as having distinct environmental, cultural, and economical preferences

• Why is each point on Earth unique?
• A place is a specific point on Earth distinguished by specific characterizations.
• Describing features is a essencial building block for geograpghers
• Location can be identified in 3 ways
• place names
• A toponym is the name given to places
• site is a physical character of a place
• Situation- the location of a place relative to other places
• Region- a unique area
• Most often applied at two scale
• Surrounding political states
• Constrained within one political state
• A region derives its unified character through the cultural landscape consisting of cultural religions, and physical features

• GPS- Global positioning system
• system that determines position of something on Earth
• GPS for U.S contains 3 elements
• satellites placed on predetermined orbits
• Tracking stations that control satellites
• Receiver that locates 4 satellites and finds their precise location
• Applications-
• Turn by turn direction in vehicles
• Navigation aid to pilots and sailors
• provides social media apps

            Today in Human Geo we discussed about how GPS and other things on the internet can intrude on our security. We used ancestry.com as a example. Sending ancestry.com gives you all of your information through your DNA, which may affect your future. I skimmed through the terms and conditions for ancestry. and a sentence stuck out to me. "As we are constantly striving to improve the Services we provide you, your data may be used to enhance our existing user experience or to develop new products and services." This seemed very interesting, because they are stating that they will use your data for further research, meaning they might store it. They also said, "This Privacy Statement describes our practices for collecting, storing and processing your Personal Information and the controls we provide you to manage it within our Services." Proving that they will store it and not just throw it away afterwards. I will not read the 30 page terms of conditions now, but I may in a free period and report more things that stood out in future blogs.

Today was mix match day in spirit week. So far I think spirit week is pretty fun am interested in what people where tomorrow. I will probably just wear my uniform tomorrow because I do not know how I could dress up like a baby. I also have a doctors appointment after school and should probably not go to the doctor's dressed as a baby. In Human Geo today, we got our tests back. I was very happy with my grade and I was not surprised by it because of how much I studied. I did get points off for my essay which you can't really study for you just have to be good at writing and thinking deeply. I will hopefully do better on next test's essay questions.

      Today in Human Geo finished labeling the Peter's, Robinson, and Mercator projection. I have learned a lot about maps this year so far. I already knew about things like the Equater, Prime Meridian, Latitude and longitude, but I learned how to pinpoint a exact location using latitude and longitude. I also learned that not all time zones are vertical lines and they are very confusing. I agree with you that it would have been much easier if the Earth would just have a universal time. There would be less confusion with long flights and you would not have to put your clock back. It may be confusing if you travel across the world and it is dark at 3:00pm. I also learned that there is more than one map than the Mercator and all of them are wrong because you cant project a round surface on a flat surface correctly.

• Greenwich mean time- location of prime meridian
• The international date line
• Located at 180 degrees longitude
• You move your clock back twenty four hours if you are heading eastward towards America
• Heading westward you move your clock forward 24 hours

                           

Early map-making

• Early maps were reference dots- simple navigation devices to go from point a to point b.
• First map prepared by Anaximander 276-194 BC.
• Improvements to world map by Ptolemy.
• After Ptolemy, advancements in map making by Europe, Chinese, and Islamic world.
• Map making revived the age of exploration.
• Contemporary Mapping
• Switch from a tool that provides location reference to a tool used by geographers to communicate complex geographic locations.
• Level of detail depend on map scale
• Writch scale
• Number on left-distance
• Number on right- different unit depending on the size of the map.
• Projection- Scientific method of projecting locations to a flat map.
• Earths sperical shape causes distortion when drawing it on a flat piece of paper.
• four types-Shape, distance, Relative, Direction distortion.
• Meridians- drawn between north and south poles, longitude.
• Parrelels- arcs drawn parellel to the equater
• Further accuracy can be achieved by dividing each degree by 60 minutes, and each minute by 60 seconds.
• Earth is divided into 29 timezones

       

       The cartographers in The West Wing made points such as how inaccurate the Mercator map is and how it favors imperialistic Europe. They also showed how much bigger Africa was than Greenland on the Mercator map. According to the cartographers, the Mercator map made third world countries insignificant because they are on the bottom of the map, so they said they can make the map south up because people are getting a top to bottom attitude. They also say that size has to do with the power and influence of a country. I personally think that nobody thinks that their country is bad because it is not on top of the map, so it should stay as North on the top ans South on the bottom. But I am starting to agree that the Peters is more accurate and the size of the country does show power. For example, during the cold war people thought the U.S.S.R was way bigger than it actually was because the Mercator map was so enlarged.

           Today we were going to go deeper into what we will be learning next, butt we did not get very far. The class kept getting in discussions about the Mercator map is wrong and why Christopher Columbus was not a good guy. Which brings me to my point of why we may celebrate Columbus Day even though he sounded like a bad person. Christopher Columbus did not land on the American mainland and he killed many Indians, but he did contribute in eventually colonizing America. He set up transatlantic trading routs which let more people come to North America and settle, eventually leading to modern America. To today's standards he does seem like a jerk, but he was very essential in making America what it is today.

         Today in Human Geography we learned that the Mercator map projection is completely wrong and why the Peters map projection is much more accurate. It is inaccurate because the size of north and south lad masses are enlarged because it is difficult to put a sphere on a flat surface. The Peters projection is different because it distorts the shape but keeps the size as accurate as possible. This is being adopted because it is making third world countries look weaker because it makes countries in the north bigger. I believe that the peters projection is just as inaccurate as the Mercator. I do not think anybody thinks countries are powerful based on the size of the landmass. The Mercator projection shows what the country looks like, even if it is larger than it appears. if you pull a country from the Peters projection, it will look distorted and may be confusing because the country is a different shape. I think both map projections are equally as inaccurate and it is impossible to make a accurate map of the Earth.

            Today in Human Geo we completed our first test. The test was on Socrates and a Message to Garcia. The test was easy overall and I think i did very good. I also was able to correctly guess the extra credit question so that is a bonus. I am slightly worried about the essay question because I am not the best writer. I have the right idea overall and I am hopeful I will get full credit for it. It was a easy test and it would be cool if they stayed this difficulty. But they won't.

   The first thing that happend today in class is Mr. Schick telling us that we have a test on Monday that is on excellence. The essay question will be on the quote,"The unexamined life is not worth living." I am going to discuss different points like how it is related to a message to Garcia and taking initiative. We were going to do a oral report and tell about a slide in the power point but Google prevented that from happening. So we did not really know what to do so you just let us work on our blog. It was not the most productive class but  learned about the test and started on my blog.

           Today in class we further discussed Socrates. We focused on how he was accused of impiety and corruption of the Athenian youth and his defense was that he was doing a favor for the people of Athens and he should be given free dinners for know on.This is probably why he was found guilty.  We also discussed how he was put on death sentence and refused the offer to escape the prison because he wanted to abide with the rules of democracy. After we discussed these topics, we had a vote if we were Athenians in the Agora, if he was guilty or not guilty. Most of the class including myself said he was guilty for various reasons. My main reasons are that he insulted the Athenian people and if I were a Athens I would be mad about that. He was also accused of impiety and the gods were a big part of Greece. But if it were modern day I would vote not guilty because you have freedom f speech and there are much worse people out there than a guy teaching kids things not everybody agrees with.

• Agora- Gathering place, assembly, market place. The center of athletic, aristic, spiritual, and political life in the city state (esp. Athens).
• Polis- political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens. Origins of the words politics, metropolitan, and pol.
• 508 BC- The birth of Democracy. The first time in recorded history where a people revolted against there rulers.
• US (1776)
• France (1789)
• China (1851 & 1949)
• Russia (1917)
• Iran (1979)
• Egypt (2011)
• Socrates- He was a stonemason, he fought in the Peloponnesion  war, working class background and military experience may have shaped the way he viewed the world, he met with young students in workshops right outside the agora. His method: ask a series of questions to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. This led to the scientific method, in which you start out with a hypothesis, set out to prove or disprove your theory through experimentation.
• Athens was a great city that attracted brilliant thinkers, visitors from all over the world shared there knowledge of astronomy, medicine, meteorology, literature, philosophy, and all things scientific. This often conflicted with traditional teachings which were centered around Greek gods.

A Message to Garcia notes

• Released in March, 1899
• 40 million copies sold in 37 different languages
• Made into a movie twice, once in 1916 and another in 1936
• "Take a message to Garcia" became a expression for taking initiative
• it takes place in the Spanish American War
• Garcia was a revolutionary seeking Cuban independence
• William McKinley: 25th president, assassinated six months into second term
• The tallest Mountain in North America was named after McKinley until 2015 (it is now named Denali)
• Perihelion-the point when a planet is closest to the sun (brightest)
• slipshod-careless, lackadaisical, remiss
• imbecility-incapability, feebleness, stupidity
• stenographer-a person who takes dictation in shorthand
• missive-a letter, especially a long or official one
• arete-excellence in greek
• excellence of any kind
• moral virtue
• fulfillment of purpose or function
• but mostly...
• the act of living up to ones full potencial
• only applies to humans
• highest human potential is knowledge, all other human traits is derived from this
• the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge

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A Message to Garcia

       

Sam Smith                                                                                                                   9/8/18

            A Message to Garcia is about an American soldier named Rowan who needs to deliver a message given by president McKinley to deliver to Garcia. Unlike what most people would do and ask questions like, “What is in the letter,” or “Where is he at,”. Rowan didn’t ask any questions and then traversed a hostile island alone and did not stop because it was a hard job. The author, Elbert Hubbard, then ranted on how people nowadays will never just do you ask them without asking questions or getting help. I partly agree with the author’s pinion. Although he is sounding very harsh about other people doing half-hearted work, he is not wrong that people just need to try their best and figure out problems on their own. Everybody is victim to slacking or getting distracted in the world we live in today. There are so much distractions such as phones and computers that it is hard to concentrate on work. The main theme of this short story is how Rowan took initiative and just did what he had to do. This is especially important in high school, you must take initiative and figure out problems on your own (as I found out on my third day of high school). In conclusion, you need to be like Rowan, and not get distracted, or do work unenthusiastically, or give up because it is too hard. You just need to try your hardest and deliver the message to Garcia.

Sam Smith                                                                                                                   9/5/18

            I got to school a little early, so I waited for the bell to ring so I could go to my locker. I was late to my first class, band, because I forgot my locker combination but I eventually got it open. Band was really fun and we learned new songs for the football game on Friday. Then I went to Biology which I am exited for because Science was my favorite subject. After Biology I went to advisory. We introduced ourselves and then I got my books for Human Geo. At Human Geo we went to get our pictures taken. I was also givin this assignment and we learned about our blogs. Then I had lunch and I ate with my friends and talked. Then I went to English and we turned in our Summer packets. In Intro to Bible we watched a video and reflected on in our prayer journal. Then in German we learned how to greet people and tell them your name. When school was dismissed I went to Cross Country which was fun but very hot. I really enjoyed my first day of school in John Carroll.