No school again

Here's a look at what my winter wonderland looks like. It's not too interesting besides the lacrosse equipment and the few big trees, but at least it's something.

No school

Due to weather conditions we don't have school today. Im really bummed out about this but hopefully we'll have it tomorrow.

Papa New Guinea

In class we discussed Jared Diamond as a researcher and as a human being, he is convinced that all people have the same potential. Hunter gatherers are just as intelligent, resourceful, and diligent as anybody else. Yet material "success" isn't equally distributed across the globe. Civilization sprung up in relatively few places and spread in a defined pattern. Diamond argues that civilization arose from regions that we're susceptible the domestication of both plants and large mammals to plow fields. This combination vastly increased food production, which in turn supported larger populations. From there, it's the standard political economy story about the positive feedback loop of prosperity and social complexity favoring the evolution of more complex forms of social organization, specialization, increased technical innovation, etc. 

Domestic Animals

14 domestic animals 100 pounds or more

1. goats
2. sheep
3. pigs
4. cows
5. horses
6. donkeys 
7. bactrian camel
8. arabian camel
9. water buffalo
10. llama
11. reindeer
12. yaks
13. mithun
14. belli cattle

Animals were a big factor in the evolution of agriculture and civilization.
Goats were probably the first animals to be domesticated, followed closely by sheep. In Southeast Asia, chickens also were domesticated about 10,000 years ago. Later, people began domesticating larger animals, such as oxen or horses, for plowing and transportation

More on Jared Diamond

All people were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Diamond embarks on a world-wide quest to understand the roots of global inequality. He goes to New Guinea to trace the humanities journey from framing to the last Ice Age. Race was a big factor in this time period. Yoli wanted to know why places have more cargo then others. Why since ancient times have some societies progresses faster than others? During the Ice age the Middle East was thriving. They were hunter gatherers. They had to track the animal then shoot them with a bow and arrow. The women are the gatherers and the most prominent food source is wild sago. Enables them to make weapons. How did they survive with this little food supply. A granary was found which was a building where grain was stored. They were hardy and durable so this is what they ate. The thought behind this is that they started to grow their own food and stay close to water. This was the start of the first farmers of the world, unconsciously. Hunter gatherers were at a disadvantage because they couldn't compete. China then started to grow rice. Americans grew corm. Later in Africa they grew sorgum, millet, and yams. However in New Guinea, this was very different. Taro crops and cereal crops differ because it's more time consuming, and low in protein. This causes an unbalanced diet. Farming is crucial to the story of human inequality, but the type of framing is also a big factor. Geographic location affects this. Domestic animals started to be added, introduced to this way of life. Animal were mutually beneficial in regards to the relationship between plants and animals.

Grading Essay's

Mr. Schick graded all our essays todays. Colin and I were the last to have our essays graded so while we did silent work he graded them. Mr. Schick is really knowledgable about english so hearing his opinions really helped. I did pretty good on the exam and found the class to be easy because i enjoyed all the topics we covered. Overall Human Geography was really fun and I enjoyed the class a lot. Debating was very interesting and I even enjoyed writing about what were learning. I really hope that Western Civ is just as fun.

Test

Today we learned that if we have snow this week then we have to take our religion test on Tuesday when we're starting Western Civilization. I don't want to take the test because I already have a high grade in this class and i don't want to jeopardize that. Mr. Schick also started to give us riddles about life and it started to hurt my head. I also found that watching animal cams is really soothing and helps me relax. In langue arts while we worked on our posters we listened to Dolly Parton and now I have her music stuck in my head. Tonight I'm going to study for my oral exam in french and relax.

5 Religions

The religion Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with around 2.2 billion followers. The followers called Christians believe in Jesus Christ being the son of God. They believe that he led a virtuous life till the day he was crussifiated and rose into heaven. These stories are in the holy book, the Bible, but specific stories of Jesus life and teachings is found in the Gospels. The Christian religion has many different denominations that believe this main idea. These denominations include the Catholic church, Eastern Orthodox. and  Protestants. These Christans are spread out all over from Europe, to the Americans, and southern Africa

Isalm is the second largest religion in the world, with 1.5 billion followers. Muslims are found in Indonesia, Middle East, and north Africa. Muslims much like Christians are monotheistic and believe in one God called the Allah. They devote their life praying to the Allah and observing Islamic law. They read from the holy book Qur’an , which is very much simular to the bible. They do this by following the five pillars. This is something very important to their devoted faith for both denominations, the Sunnis and the Shiites.

With 1.1 billion follower is the religion Hinduism. Hindu's live mostly in India and Nepal. This explains why it's the third largest religion in the world. Following the Vedas on the polyistic faith they believe in reincarnation. This religion has no distinct founder and it's more commonly describvled as a philosophy or way or life.

Buddhism has 500 million to 1.5 billion Buddhist followers. This number varies so much because the religions can have common aspect of other religions such as Christianity. many followers can classify as both religions, but there ever seems to have a check box with two checks. Buddhists believe in that there is suffering in the world but there are ways to reach happiness. Buddha scarified everything to find his purpose of life. In my opinion this is the most interesting.

Juddhism is the smallest of the 5 religions we're studying this may be because of the attempted genocide of Jewish people during the Holocaust. Most are found in the holy land Israel and the United States. The holy book is called the Torah and includes the 10 books from the Old Testament.

todays class

In todays class we went over the packet we were given and highlighted things. We talked about how big of a religion Christianity is. We also discussed the practices of a Baptist church. It seems like its really fun because everyone is so energetic. It would be nice to introduce some new music at chruch to make it less dreading. We also got our exam grade for the multiple choice section. I thought that I would do better not going to lie. A 93 is good but could've been better. I was also one away from having the highest in the class which is frustrating, but its okay maybe I'll live. I can't believe tomorrows Friday. This week went by so fast.

Pow Wow

7 sacraments

• Baptism.
• Eucharist.
• Confirmation.
• Reconciliation.
• Anointing of the sick.
• Marriage.
• Holy orders.

Today in class we discussed the questions we had. We talked a lot about Protestant churches. I didn't realize how many Lutherans we had in our class. Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestant Christianity which identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German monk, reformer and theologian. Mr. Schick also explained how they say an extra part to a prayer and dont do the sign of the cross.

Religion Research

The Rig-Veda is one of the 4 Vedas. It is also the largest text of the Vedic collection. It has 1028 hymns and it is divided into ten books called mandalas. It has many metaphors and allusions that are hard to interpret. The Sama-Veda has 1549 stanzas and some are like the Rig-Veda, but are they are arranged differently since they are meant to be chanted. The Yajur-Veda is divided into the White and Black Yajur-Veda and contains descriptions on how to perform religious rituals and sacrifices. It has 1875 verses. The Atharva-Veda contains charms and has a more folk style. It has 760 hymns.

The practice of indulgences is a way to pay the church money in order for your venial sins. The thought behind it was that if you pay money then your less sins will be forgiven which means you won't have to spend more time in purgatory. I think Martin Luther disagreed with indulgences because he didn't believe paying money had any connection to Gods image of us. 
http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/web/37luther.htm

Hajj is a pilgrimage by Muslims to the holy city of Mecca. This journey is annual and a mandatory religious duty. The pilgrimage rite begins on the the last month of the Islamic year and ends on the 12th day.  Its one of the 5 pillars
.When the pilgrim is about 6 miles from Mecca, they enter the state of holiness known as ihram. They then wear garment and the ones for for men they consist of two white seamless sheets that are wrapped around the body, while women may wear sewn clothes. They are to then enter Mecca and walk seven times around the sacred shrine called the Kaʿbah, in the Great Mosque, kiss or touch the Black Stone Male pilgrims heads are then usually shaved, and female pilgrims remove a lock of hair. After throwing seven stones at each of the three pillars at Mina on three days , the pilgrim returns to Mecca to perform the farewell of the Kaʿbah before leaving the city.

Adherents VS CIA World Fact Book

The information from adherents is a little different than the more updated information on the CIA World Factbook. This is quite ironic since the website adherents is known for having information specifically on religions. On adherents it has the percentages for 2005 at Christianity 33% of the world, Islam at 22%, Hinduism at 14%, Buddhism at 6%, and Judaism at .22%. On the CIA World Factbook it has the percentages for Christianity at 31.4% of the world, Islam at 23.2%, Hindu 15%, Buddhist 7.1%, and 0.2 for Jewish. It seems that the Christianity population has decreased, while other religions have increased by a little. Judaism has remained roughly the same, but I am still very surprised that the amount of Jewish people are so low. World War 2 had a big impact on this. Now seeing the CIA World Factbooks information is roughly updated and has so much information, I think its more of a reliable source than adherents.com.

Buddism and Christianity

I found todays lesson really interesting because my family friend is an orthodox buddist and i found his philosophy on life really interesting. I then went over to his house where in a big room he has his own little temple I guess where he can meditate and self reflect.Practicing this made me for thankful for life and I started to get more involved in my own church. Whenever I can i like to participate the youth group and I even play guitar for the chorus at times. Meditation helps me focus more on the good things and how I can be a better person. I don't really know if I believe in reincarnation or enlightenment since I follow the practices of the catholic church of heaven and hell. I also thought that it was interesting how Jewish people don't pray to saints. Then it brought up the topic what makes a saint a saint. How do we know if they are even in heaven. I think learning about other religions is fascinating because it gives you insight into what is important to people.

Religon

The new unit we are going over in class is about the 5 major religions. We talked about how Christianity has changed because of Martin Luther King. He wrote a list of 95 things that he thought were wrong with the church and pinned it on the church door. The church did not agree with what he thought was wrong. Martin then thought that it was wrong so he made his own religion. It is called Protestant. Protestantism is the second largest form of Christianity with collectively between 800 million and more than 900 million adherents worldwide or nearly 40% of all Christians. It originated with the 16th century Reformation, a movement against what its followers perceived to be errors in the Roman Catholic Church.