Fun Facts of the Day

1. What is the population of the United States?

    316,668,567

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

    China, India, United States, Indonesia, Brazil

3. What is the population of Pakistan?

              193,238,868

4. What kind of government does the United States have?

             Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe?

    95%

6. What is the largest country in the world by area?

             Russia

7. What country has the third greatest number of airports?

            United States

8. What country has the greatest number of exports?

             China

9. What country exports more oil than any other?

    Saudi Arabia

10. What country imports more oil than any other?

            United States       

11. What country has the second largest proved reserves of crude oil in the world?

    Venezuala

12. Can women serve in combat roles in China’s military?

            No.

13. What is GDP?

Gross Domestic Product of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it?

             Qatar

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

    No

16. Most of the countries with the highest birth rates can be found in what continent?

             Africa

17. 11 of the top 12 countries with the highest number of deaths from HIV/AIDS can be found

in which continent?

    Africa

18. What other country is in the top ten?

            India

19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths?

    18th

20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones?

            No

21. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic?

    23.9%

22. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?

82.7%   

23. What is Net Migration Rate?

    A figure for the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during the year per 1,000 persons

24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world?

    No, it’s Libya

25. According to the Factbook, what is the current population of the entire planet?

    7,095,217,980

Why US has increasing population?

Today in Human Geo, we went over three key terms. Migration, pull/push force, and total fertility rate. In migration, there is immigration and emigration. Immigration is when someone enters a country and pretty much lives there. Emigration is when someone leaves a country to move to another country. The difference between the two for a country is the net migration rate. Next, a push force are reasons why people emigrate to another country. For example, religious persecution, lack of job opportunity and bad living environment. A pull force are reasons why people want to immigrate to a certain country. For example, religious freedom, job opportunity, better living conditions. Finally, total fertility rate is the amount of babies a woman has. This means if a woman gives birth to a child who lives for at least an hour, add one to the total fertility rate. The amount total fertility rate to have a population stay the same is 2.1. The reason its not two is because children die as children so obviously that decreases the population. For the United States, why does the population increase especially since the total fertility rate is below 2.1. This is where all 4 terms comes together. Many people migrate to the Unites States because it is a free country with many job opportunities and the total fertility rate is only .04 lower than the average.

Test Day Part 2 and Unit 2

Today in Human Geo, we resumed our test after the fire drill on Friday limited our time. I felt that the test was fair since all questions were covered in class. After the test, we went over definitions and explanations on important words to know in Unit 2. These words are life expectancy, crude birth rate, crude death rate, developing nations, developed nations, rate of national increase, net immigration rate, immigration,  emigration, push force, pull force and total fertility rate. The only four definitions that we went over is life expectancy, crude birth rate, crude death rate and rate of national increase. Life expectancy means average number of years to be lived by a group born in the same years. Crude birth rate is number of births per 1000 of population. Crude death rate is number of deaths per 100 of population. Finally, rate of national increase is (birth rate-death rate) / 10. We also went over the first four important facts that have to do with population. There is currently 7 billion people on Earth and about 77 million per year. Also 90% of population growth is from Africa, South and East Asia and Latin America. The last fact is that women lives longer than men due to the fact that men take a riskier way of life.

Test and Fire Drill Day

Today in Human Geography, we took a test. The multiple choice questions on the test shocked me a little bit because there were like 5 or 6 questions that were related to A Message to Garcia and Socrates. Also the first question was related to Wikipedia which I really did not expect. The short essay questions were expected to be what they are. Overall, I felt like the test is pretty easy and all information has been covered in class. What makes it even better is that we had a fire drill today which gives us extra time to study and prepare for what were going to write on our essay. The fire drill was very unexpected. A teacher almost got wet from the sprinklers during the fire drill. 

Presentations and Studies

Today in class, some of the groups presented their powerpoints on the pros and cons of globalization. In my opinion, all the presentations were great and taught me new things and ideas that I might use in the upcoming test for the globalization part of the essay. They also contained information that Mr.Schick covered in class as well. For example, something I learned was that it can make the rich richer and the poor poorer and something that I already knew is the Nike sweat shop example. After all the amazing presentations, we went over the test and questions. On the test, there will be 10 multiple choice questions and 3 short essays. The first essay question has to do with the unexamined life is not worth living and what it means. The next has to do with infrastructure. The last has to do with globalization and the elements. TIME TO STUDY!!!

Nike Behind the Swoosh Part 2

Today in class, Mr.Schick pulled up a website he found about Nike and their sweatshop problem. The website kind of connects with the video Behind the Swoosh we watched the previous class. According to the website, Nike has resolved its problem with sweatshops. They increase paying workers from just over a dollar a day to 3.7 a day. Since they have no vacation, they make an overall $962 a year. . That's pathetic. One can make more money working at Mcdonald's which also probably has better working conditions. With Nike doing this, the rich (high up Nike workers like CEO) get richer and the poor get poorer since they save 50000 a day by doing this. So yes Nike did make help the Indonesians a little bit but still they have to fight for their lives daily.

Behind the Swoosh

Today in class, we went over Mr. Schick's expectations for all blogs so I will make sure this blog is at least 150 words and an interesting name. After this, we watched a video called Behind the Swoosh where a man named Jim Keady talks about why Nike is bad. The main reason in his opinion after research why Nike is bad is because it violates Catholic teachings and he is Catholic and that it punishes factory workers. One day, he got signed as coach for St. Johns, one of the best soccer colleges at the time. However, the college uses Nike and forces all athletes and coaches to wear Nike. Jim was than fired for not wearing Nike since he believed it was bad. After all of that, he and a girl named Leslie Kretzu traveled to Indonesia to live the daily life of and Indonesian. In Indonesia they experienced wages of 1.25 a day, horrible living conditions and being painfully hungry and tired. They learned in there experience that children do not go to school and have to take care of themselves while parents are working. These children play in an area where burned Nike stuff releases toxins which lead to cancer for these children. Also, the parents face a life and death situation everyday with them worried about life everyday. After this experience, they traveled to Oregon to meet with the CEO of Nike Phil Knight. He was offered to go to Nike but refused. The last thing the duo did was bring Indonesians to America and show athletes what they go through because of Nike.

Human Geo Blog 9.13.13

Today in Human Geography, Mr. Schick started off by explained why Wikipedia is a reliable website. He said that Wikipedia starts off with a couple paragraphs for definitions and than a whole lot of information about the topic after that. In order to see a certain part, there is a table of contents there to take one to a certain part of the text. What makes Wikipedia so reliable though is the amount of resources that they have looked from and they list all of them. After learning about Wikipedia, we started with our first project which is a powerpoint saying whether globalization is good or bad. We used google docs for this project which has been discussed about in previous classes.✌

Human Geo Blog 9-11-13

Today in class, we continued talking about globalization. We started where we left off last class at the National Geographic site. During our discussion, Mr. Schick really wanted us to make sure we understand interconnections. He talked about how interconnections makes all the countries in this world a whole. One can not work without the other. For example, if the United States decides to become its own by making its own products and blocking the borders, it would crumple because it needs other countries for help. That is why other countries make products and ship it to us. The world however, is always in crisis because there are always wars such as Israel hating Iran and wanting to go to battle with them but of course the US protects Iran. There is more arguing and yelling in the world then discussing and working things out. On going to National Geographics, we revisit the idea of how China will soon become the #1 English speaking country because of globalization since China picked up English from us and they have a katrillion much higher population than us. Finally, we look at shipping containers which are used throughout the world because of interconnections and globalization.


IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO SUFFERED DURING 9/11

 

Human Geo Post 9.10.13

In Human Geography today, Robert Schick discussed about how great Google Drive is with its ability to help one work with other classmates on our tablets instead of in person. On Google Drive, we discussed test questions and added definitions for globalization. One definition we came up with is interconnections of nations. After we did this we looked at examples of globalization in the world today. For example, Japan used to be a healthy country but because of globalization, they picked up fast food restaurants from America. Now Japan is unhealthier than ever because America shared fast food restaurants with Japan.

Daily Blog 9.9.13

Today, Mr. Schick talked about Google Docs for the first time. Google Docs can help you work with others on a project. Google Docs will be used many times this year since it has so much up side to it. For example, in Google Docs, one can create and edit, communicate with others and it auto saves without any fees. Also during the mass, Father Rose mentioned the Socratic Method which has been discussed during the past few classes. ✌

Human Geo 9.7.13

         In Human Geography Friday, we looked at a video. It taught us many things. I will say 10. First, the USA is stupid compared to India. The 25% of India's population with the highest IQ's is higher than the total population of the United States. Second, by the age of 38, us Americans will have 10-14 jobs compared to other people from other countries who have less jobs. This is because us Americans are not as hard workers and ask for more money than other people from other countries do. Thirdly, education is preparing students for jobs and using technologies that have not been invented in order to solve problems that we never knew were problems. Fourth, a random fact. The country with the best economy, military system, education, innovation, inventions and was just near utopia was 1900 England. Fifthly, 800 million people are using Facebook. If it was a country, it would be the fifth largest. Sixth, the first text message was in 1992. It has grown so much that there are more text messages than people in the world. Seventhly, there are about 540000 English words. This is 5x more than it was in Shakespeare time. Eighth, it is estimated that 40 exabytes of unique information will be generated worldwide this year. This is more than the previous 5000 years. Ninthly, third generation fiber optics have recently been separately tested by NEC and Alcatel that carry 10 trillion bits per second down a single strand of fiber. That is 1900 CDs or 150 million phone calls each second. It is currently tripling every 6 months and is expected to do so for the next 20 years. Tenth, a prediction says that by 2013 a supercomputer will be built that exceeds the computation capability of the human brain. By 2049, a $1000 computer will exceeds the computational capabilities of the entire human species.  NFL IS BACK THIS WEEKEND :)

Human Geo Blog 9.4.13

         Today in class, Mr. Schick mainly went over everything about Socrates. He gave us a great visualization about the time he was in jury to the after death of Socrates. He said that in jury, he was highly likely to be innocent but was found guilty for many reasons. One being that he called Athens a stupid horse. Another for not using and creating a new way of doing things in Athens. Finally just for being sassy and cocky. When he was in jail, there were even more chances of escaping this whole situation. There was even a situation where he was basically able just to walk out the door and then be free but he went against all chances of escaping. He did this not only because it was the right thing to do since he was found guilty but because he believed in his method and that it was better. On the day of his death, with everyone with him looking saddened and disgusted, he was more positive about drinking poison. This was all discussed while looking at a very smexy looking picture of a 60 year old man where he is shirtless (yum) and pointing upward while holding a cup of poison with his friends all down. The main thing we can all learned from this is that "the unexamined life is not worth living". Socrates always looked at the big picture which made him a hero. If one does not examine life, they might as well be compared to a dog.✌

Human Geo Post 9.3.13

               Today in Human Geography, we reviewed most of the definitions the students were supposed to complete over the weekend. Mr. Schick covered all the definitions except the Socratic Method and “idiot.” He did not just cover them but gave us a clearer and descriptive visualization of what happened with each definition. Some examples include how the polis was not just a city state but the one thing that one must protect by battle without retiring. Also about the famous Greek philosopher Socrates and how he died. He said the Socratic Method killed him and that he was locked up in jail with numerous chances to escape but sacrificed death for his belief of being a philosopher and that the Socratic Method works. He died by drinking poison with his friends watching him disgusted. He was then thought as a hero by his thoughts rather than him battling. We also covered how the Greeks play a huge role in our lives today. For example, in 508 B.C., the regular people overthrew the dictator and thus making the democracy. The Romans modeled the democracy after the Greeks and the American modeled the democracy after both. ✌

Human Geo Post 9-2-13

Greek Definitions

agora- a popular political assembly.

arête- the combined amount of qualities of heroism and virtue, making up a good character.

polis- an ancient Greek city-state.

508 B.C. - Kleisthenes begins reforming Athenian code of laws, and establishes a democratic constitution

Socrates- Athenian philosopher

Death of Socrates- 399 B.C.

Socratic method- A teaching method in which a teacher does not give info directly but instead by asking a series of questions, with the result that the student comes either to the desired knowledge by answering the questions or to a deeper awareness of the limits of knowledge

Idiot- a private person who is not involved in politics