well today we just went over and talked about the statistics of the world.  All of it was really interesting, I didn't know that you needed oil to make so many things, including plastic.  Tomorrow we will watch a video titled "God grew tired of us"  and i am very exited to see what it is about.

Statistics of the world

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;

5. What is the unemployment rate in Zimbabwe? 95% 

6. What is the largest country in the world by area? Russia, Canada, United States, China, Brazil

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

8. What country has the greatest number of exports? China

9. What country exports more oil than any other? Saudi Arabia

10. What country imports more oil than any other? USA

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

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

13. What is GDP? Gross Domestic Product- goods and services produced in a country in a given year.

14. What country has the highest GDP per capita in the world, and how much is it? Qatar 103,900

15. Is the US in the top ten for GDP per capita? No

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

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

in which continent? Africa

18. What other country is in the top ten? India

19. Where does the US rank in HIV/AIDS deaths? 18

20. Is the US #1 in number of cellular phones? No

21. What percentage of the US is Roman Catholic? 23.9%

22. What percentage of Mexico is Roman Catholic?  82.7

23. What is Net Migration Rate? difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a war

24. Does the US have the highest Net Migration Rate in the world? no

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

Immigration

Today we discussed and debated migration.  Here are some terms that we defined:

• Net Migration Rate: The difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a county during one year
• Immigration: Excess of persons entering the country
• Emigration: excess of persons leaving the country
• Push forces:  something that is causing people to move out of a country (ex. civil war)
• Pull forces:  Something that is causing people to come to a country (ex. better economy)
• Total fertility rate: Averge number of children born per women

We were talking about immigrants coming over to America i a big chunk of the class.  Some people though it was a bad thing and that these immigrants were taking our jobs. Some people didn't.  Personally i do not have a problem with immigrant coming for -for example- Mexico.  Mexicans come over here for a reason.  They need jobs to support their families.  The USA is a very great opportunity for a average job without a collage education.  People are complaining that the Mexicans are taking our jobs away.  But in reality, who would want to be a landscaper?  And the other part is these Mexicans are very hard working.  They do not complain and whine like some Americans do.  So in my opinion I think it is fine that immigrants are coming from different countries 

Population and migration

Today we started a new chapter.  The chapter is called population and migration.  Today we defined some terms such as:

• Life expectancy- Average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year.
• crude birth rate- number of births per 1,000 of the population
• crude death rate- number of deaths per 1,000 of the population
• Rate of natural increase- produced by subtracting the death rate from the birth rate and dividing it by ten.

The life expectancy thing was cool.  I don't remember the county with the highest life expectancy, but i do remember that the USA is #50 highest life expectancy out of 200 and something, and i guess that i somewhat good.  I would think that most European countries would have a higher life expectancy because of their life style.  I have been to Europe, and you barely see many fast food restaurants, only in the big cities you will see few.  Also, generally in Europe, people mostly walk to most place, which makes them physically fit.  But of course in lots of countries in Europe, they are not that strict about the drinking and smoking ages, so young people can die from that.

On Friday, we took out first human geography test.  I didn't get to finish it because there was a a random fire alarm.  I'm on my last essay and i think i'm doing pretty good so far.  

Test Review

Today we presented a power point.  Well one group didn't ( that group was mine.)  After that we reviewed for the test.  I like how like you said, on the test we are not going to be tested on memorization that much.  We are mostly writing out opinions in our essays.  

A Con of Globalization

These sweatshops and the way Nike is taking advantage of third world countries is so wrong.  This is a con of globalization.  There are probably many other companies that does this and its horrible.  It makes me furious how selfish Nike is.  Like do you really have to pay your workers 30 cents under minimum wage? is that really necessary when they are tossing around money to famous Athletes to promote them? They should really pay workers at least minimum wage, ( I think more for all of the hard work they are doing) and stop carelessly paying people who are already rich more money just to wear your product.  

Behind the Swoosh

Today we watched a video with a Man named Jim Keadly in it. Jim had a job to coach a really good soccer team, and the Nike wanted the team to promote them.  This means they all had to ear Nike products.  Jim did some research, and he found out about the "sweatshops" in Indonesia.  Sweatshops are basically factories that people work in for long hours for very low pay, and these people live in poor conditions.  Nike had has multiple sweatshops in Indonesia where they put poor people to work and only payed them $1.25 a day.  With that money you could buy one meal and dish soup.  Jim refused to promote Nike and he got fired in June of 1998.  Jim wanted to see for himself how bad the living conditions were in Indonesia, so he went to live there with Lislie Kretzu.  They actually lived in the neighborhood where the Nike workers lived.  The living conditions were terrible.  They basically lived in a 9 by 9 house with no furniture, and it was not sanitary at all ( the sewage was open and in the streets.)  Jim and Leslie only got 1.25 each a day, because they wanted to see how the workers lived.  It was not easy.  They were always hungry, ( Jim lost 25 pounds) and  they were completely exhausted after a couple days.  They were not even working and they were exhausted.  They couldn't image living a life like this and work 10 hours a day.  Jim tried to contact the Nike headquarters, and they would not talk to him.  The Nike headquarters put signs up to not talk to Jim or Leslie or else they would be seriously punished.  Then he tried talking to the CEO of Nike.  Of course, he refused to talk.  It is very inspirational the Jim and Leslie are trying to make a change.  It just makes me so sad that these people can not choose.  They either have no job or work in sweatshops.  This is an example of a negative effect of Globalization.

yesterday we got into groups and started a power point presentation on globalization.  There are a lot of pros and cons of globalization.  A pro of it is all of the countires of the world uniting and understanding each other.  A con is there will never be any diverse cultures, there will just be the same cultures.  And I, personally, like to go to different countries and learn about their different cultures and eat their national foods, not McDonald's.

Globalization

I don't really remember what we specifically talked about in class today.  We went over globalization more, and had mini discussions and rants on immigration and what would happen if the United States was isolated from the rest of the world.  I would never think that would work out because we would not get the recources that we need that are in different countries.  North Korea is doing it, but they basically are a dictator ship, and such a small country, that it is working.  It actually isn't working that well.  Many people are living in poverty and starving in North Korea.  

Today we defined and discussed the term Globalization.  The definition of globalization is the inner connection of countries and cultures coming together.  A growing integration of economy and society.  results in the advances of international, cultural, economical and political activities.  I don't think globalization is good because i think that countries should have their own thing going on.  It is cool to travel to other countries and see the different cultures and language.     

Review sheet

Today we set up a Google notebook.  we were all suppose to create a review for the test that is coming up.  So far, on the review sheet, I have stuff about Socrates and the letter to Garcia. 

Did you Know?

On Friday, the class watched a short presentation called "Did you know?"  The presentation was about the statistics of the world and some very surprising facts.  The three facts that caught my interest were:

1. India has more honors kids than America has kids.  This surprised me because the united states is way bigger than India abd india has more honors students than we have students.
2. Did you know that if you took every job in the us today and shipped it to china, china would still have a labor surplus.  This shows me how overpopulated china is.
3. 1 out of 6 couples that are married met online.  This goes to show that technology has a huge impact on our lives.  

Socrates

So basically all we talked about today was Socrates, which is completely cool because i like learning about him.  I learned more about the "death of Socrates" painting today.  I referred to Socrates as "the shirtless one" because that's what came in my head first.  I Learned that he was not only a philosopher, but a sassy philosopher.  He was accused of corrupting the minds of the youth.  All of the leaders did not want people questioning life and other things, so they blamed Socrates and his teachings.  In Socrates' trial, he had a chance to apologize and be set  free, but as i said before, he is sassy.  So he insisted that instead of being punished, he should he rewarded, and i agree.  But it looked like more people disagreed than agreed.  Socrates ended up getting sentenced to death.  No, it's not the death sentence where they just inject you and you die peacefully.  Socrates had to drink a poison called hemlock, and this was a very painful death.  It was pretty much like suffocating to death.  And Socrates had a chance to be free in trial and wen he was imprisoned.  The "death of Socrates"  painting illustrates Socrates moments before he is about to drink the poison and his followers are all upset and begging him not to drink it.  Now if you have never seen this painting before you would image Socrates in a corner crying.  But nope, he is declaring that he is going to drink the cup with his hand up in the air.  This is what I admire about him.  He was proudly dying for his belief and philosophy. 

Death of Socrates

Today we reviewed the Greek terms again.  I learned some things that i didn't know, and stuff that a thought was pretty interesting.  Like how Socrates died.  From what a heard in class, he was teaching his philosophies to young kids.  The leader did not like that he was teaching his philosophy to the kids, because the kids were questioning things; and the leaders did not want that happening.  So basically they gave the choice to Socrates to go into exile or drink poison.  He choose to drink the poison, (which was a very painful death) and people kept trying to convince him to escape (which he very well could have).  But he refused.  He said if he died he would want to die for his philosophy.  There is also a painting named "death of Socrates", and it shows this big buff super hero man. Socrates was not a big, young, handsome guy.  He was an old frail man, but in the painting he is embodied as a super hero.  In the eyes of the people he was a super hero, so thats why he was portrayed as one.

Greek Terms

1. Agora: means "gathering place" or"assembly."  It was a place for athletic, artistic, spiritual, and political life in the city.
2. Arete: means excellence or living up to one's full potential.
3. Polis: Means city in Greek.  It is often translated as a city-state. 
4. The year of 508 BC:  Democracy begins in Athens.
5. Socrates: A famous Greek philosopher.
6. Death of Socrates:  He was executed because he supported Sparta, which was Athens' rivalry.
7. Socratic method:  In order to solve a problem, you break it down into a series of questions.
8. What the ancient Greeks meant when they called you an idiot:  It means "private citizen."  In ancient Greece, when they called you an idiot they are referring to self-centeredness.