December 15

Today in class, we went over what was going to be on the exam.

Socrates quote- "the examined life is not worth living", rather face death than life- agora to speak up, clay pots did the best,
arete- doing something good, excellence
idiot- politics, didn't care
polis- city state

Merkel- more powerful than Dilma Rouseff 

agora- ancient greek meeting place

elbert hubbard- writer of message to garcia

socrates asked people questions to encourage critical thinking

-accused of direspecting greek gods

-corrupting minds of young

number one english speaking country- china

total fertility rate- number of birth's from women per country

2.1 population stays the same

1.something population is decreasing

our population is increasing

chanceller of germany- angela merkel

December 12

Today in class, we got back two tests and reviewed them for the exam. We read the answers in class, and I corrected my paper. I knew some of my mistakes and made sure I went over them for the exam. Our first exam is Tuesday and we have Human Geo. I hope to get a good grade on the exam and will study very hard. This should be a very hard week, but at least we get out early!

December 10

Today in class, we took our cultural test. The first questions included questions from Slumdog Millionaire, and I tried to remember them. I remembered that Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill. The hardest part was the abbreviations meaning different things, and I think I got most of those wrong. The last part of the test was to choose a religion to go with a statement. Some were hard to remember, and I was hoping I did well on that section. After I finished the test, Mr. Schick went to go check the papers. He called us up and we all got to know our grade. I know I didn't do well, and was scared to see my grade. I got a 73%, but at least I passed instead of failing. Hopefully I will do well on the exam next week!

December 9

Today in class, we had Mr. Kimble as a sub. I studied my notes with Leigh and Meredith, and we also started our 2014 rap. We didn't get far on the rap, but still found a song for it to go to. We all shared our notes about cultural characteristics, and hoped to get a good grade. I got mixed up with all the religions, and knew I needed to study hard for this test. I hope our class does well on the test and maybe try to bring our average up!

December 8

Today we took more notes on different religions:

more on Buddhism
Four Noble Truths
-there is suffering
-attachment to desire is the origin of suffering 
-there is a cessation of suffering
-the Eight fold Path will lead to the cessation of suffering

The Eight fold Path
Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Dedication

Judaism
-14-18 million
-called Jews
-located in Israel
-founder: Abraham(?)
holy book: Talmud ad Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
beliefs: ethical monotheism- God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind
Ten Commandments
13 Principles of Faith

December 5

Today in class we took more notes from the slide show, and learned facts about religion. Here are the notes I took:

Examples of Spatial Divisions

Political alliances

-North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

-Commonwealth of Nations

-Organization of American States (OAS)

Christianity

-around 2.2 billion (largest in the world)

-called Christians

-located in Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa

-one denomination 

-Catholic Church (biggest), Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, and more

-founder is Jesus Christ

-holy book is the bible, new testament 

-belief: Jesus is birth human and divine- the son of god

-crucified, died, wand was buried

-ascended into heaven where he reigns with God the Father

-clergy: Pope is head of the church, priests are local authorities

Islam

-1.5 billion (second largest)

-called Muslims

-located in Indonesia, Middle East, and North Africa

-denominations: Sunnis (75- 90%), Shiites (10-20%)

-founder Muhammad (570-632)

-holy book is Qur'an

-belief: monotheistic, Abrahamic

-five pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage)

-Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God), and observing Islamic law

Hinduism

-1.1 billion (third largest)

-called Hindus

-located in India, Nepal

-holy books the Vedas- eternal truths revealed to ancient sages; not written on paper but comprised

(meant to be sung and easily memorized)

-no distinct founder- series of intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, strict set of beliefs- probable the oldest religion, although Hinduism is less a religion than a way of life, or a faith

-in other words... reincarnation

Buddhism

-500 million to 1.5 billion 

-called Buddhists

-located location Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan (there are 1.2 million Buddhists in the United States)

-founder is Siddhartha Gautama

-denominations; Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, Amidist

December 3

Today, we took more notes:

Religion can be both a unifying force

-there are five major religions in the world today: Hinguism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
-they have millions of followers all believing the same thing
-religion can also be a dividing force around the world
-Hindus and Muslims fight in India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim)
-There are conflicts between Catholics and Protestants (two forms of Christianity) in Northern Ireland
-Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim Jerusalem as their religions holy site, they are constantly fighting over the land
-spatial divisions are how we divide the livable space found on the earth by establishing social, economic, and political control
-you can be a member of more than one spatial group
-spatial divisions can also cause conflicts or cooperation
Examples of Spatial Divisions:
-countries
-economic alliances
  -European Union (EU)
  -Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

Day 43

Today in class, we took notes about cultural characteristics. Here are the notes I took:

Cultural characteristics are parts of a group's everyday life. They are the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members. These same characteristics can also link or divide a region.
Examples: language, religion, and ethnic heritage
language
-Arabic unites the Arab world
-Spanish unites the Hispanic world
-Brazil only South American nation that does not speak Spanish, speaks Portuguese
-Canada is a bilingual nation, french and English are their official languages
-Switzerland has multiple languages but very little conflict between the groups
-English is now considered the world language and is used for most business transactions around the world
Ethnic
-in Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country (Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians)
-when strong leadership died out, the different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they all have separate countries
-in the countries of Rwanda and Burundi in Africa, two ethnic groups are dominant, the Tutsis and the Hutus
-the hutus are dominant in one and they persecute the Tutsis, and the Tutsis are dominant in the other and they persecute the Hutus. it lead to almost constant war
-the united states and Switzerland have peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their countries
-Korea, Japan, and China have primarily one ethnic group
-on the island of Cyprus, the Greeks and the Turks try to gain control