LAST BLOG POST EVER

Today was our last day in human geography :( I have enjoyed my time in this class. Over all this class taught me a lot, like using Google docs, and I now have an understanding of the countries around us. Mr. Schick, I thank you for teaching me and giving me boosts of confidence when I was unsure. You are a very good teacher, and I wish that I was in your class next semester. I hope you have a good rest of the year.
Sara Dieter

Study Guide: Terms Only

Urban Geography Study Guide

City= a conglomeration of people/buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.

Urban= the buildup of the central city and the suburban realm- the city and the surrounding environs connected to the city

Facts:

Almost half (50%) of the Earth's population live in urban areas/cites.

A rural area can become urbanized quite quickly in the modern world.

Shenzhen, China is an example of a rural area becoming urbanized very quickly. It only took 25 years for that area to totally change.

The first urban revolution:

Before urbanized people often clustered in agricultural villages

Agricultural villages= a relatively small, egalitarian villages, where most of the population was involved in agriculture

About 10,000 years ago, people began living in agriculture villages.

They soon learned "growing", and now they have a ready supply food. By growing food you can stay in one pace and have the chance to become civilized.

Components to form cities:

1. An agricultural surplus

2. Social stratification (a leadership class)

Hearths of Urbanization:

Mesopotamia (Iraq) - 3500 BC

Nile River Valley (Egypt) - 3200 BC

Indus River Valley (India) - 2200 BC

Haung He An Wei River Valley (China) - 1500 BC

Mesomerica (The Americans) - 200 BC

These are an agricultural surplus and social stratification

Examples:

Indus River Valley:

Harappa and moheno-daro were two of the first cities of the Indus River Valley

They lived an equal lifestyle, keeping houses in equal size, no palaces, no monuments, and this idea was intricately planned.

Haung He An Wei River Valley:

The Chinese purposefully planned their cities too.

They are centered on a vertical structure, and had an inner wall built around the center.

They did not treat everyone here equally, for there were palaces and temples, but only for the leadership class.

Mesomerica:

Mayan Aztec civilizations

Many ancient cities were theocratic centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings.

Diffusion of Urbanization:

The Greek cities:

By 500 BC, Greeks were highly urbanized.

A network of more than 500 cities and towns made up the Greek empire.

These cities and towns were sitting on mainlands and islands.

Each city had an acropolis and an agora.

The Roman cities:

A system of cities and small towns that were linked together with roads and routes.

The Romans were the first to come up with connecting their cities with roads.

Sites of Roman cities were typically for trade.

A Roman city's form combines the acropolis and agora into one space.

Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Between 1/3 and 2/3's of the population was enslaved.

Second urban revolution:

A large scale of people moved to cities to work in manufacturing, and this was possible because of:

1. The 2nd agricultural involution that improved food production and created a larger surplus

2. Industrialization, which encouraged growth of cities near industrial resources (like a snowball effect)

The second half of the century:

The nature of manufacturing changed and locations changed as well. Many factors have been abandoned, creating "rust-belts" out of once thriving industrial districts

An example is: Steel- most of the things we use are plastic, we no longer use steel as frequently as we use to. Therefor the steel industries are not needed as much as they were back then.

Zones of the city:

1. Central business district (CBD)

2. Central city (the CBD + older housings)

3. Suburb (outlining functionally uniform zone outside of the central city

Edge cities:

Suburban downtown, often located near key freeway intersections that often have:

1. Office complexes

2. Shopping centers

3. Hotels

4. Restaurants

5. Entertainment facilities

6. Sports complexes

Making cities in global core:

Redlining= financial institutions refusing to lend money in certain neighborhoods

Blockbusting= realtors purposefully sell a home at a low price to African Americans and then solicit white residents to sell their homes and low prices, to generate "white flight"

Video part 3: The fertile cresent

The animals that were talked about on my last blog were not all over the Earth to start. Lamas came from South America, and around 14 of the animal came from Asia, Europe, and North Africa. But where did these animals come from, and why does Papua New Guinea have none of these animals? A place called the Fertile Crescent, was one of the luckiest geographical spot on Earth. It had the right climate, was a food provider, and had goats for livestock. This is where people first started making civilization. But the area soon became abandoned. This happened because the people had wrecked the land, and the climate became a problem for them. They over exploded the environment. The civilization that once lived here was amazing. They were very smart in how they organized and built things. When they would build houses they would plaster the walls, that is amazing for people who have never really been "taught" how to do this, but they just thought that it would be important to do. They also had an understanding of fire. Once they abandoned the Fertile Crescent, they moved east and west. By moving east and west they stayed with in the same lines of latitude. Because of this the climate and land stayed the same. This is how the world became full of livestock. When the people moved and spread across they took things with them. This made the world into what we know it to be. If it weren't for those people life could be very different.

The question that was asked was, "Why you white people have so much, and we have so little" is answered by the word geography. In Papua New Guinea they do not have the ability to use livestock. They have to spend so much time worrying if they have enough food to feed themselves that they did not think about other important factors. Maybe if they had more "geographical luck" there lifestyles would be a lot more different.

Video part 2: Animal Domestication

A very important factor in a civilization is farming. For example, China mainly grows rice, America grows corn, squash, and beans, and Africa grows sorghum,and, yams. Jared Diamond believe that plants are one of the main reasons for Papua New Guinea's lack of civilization. Papua New Guinea does a lot of farming, and it is all done by hand, because they do not have the proper tool and resources. Domesticated animals are very useful for farming. They can plow the ground, give people food, warmth/clothes with their fur, and milk. By Papua New Guinea not having these domesticated animals the people of New Guinea have to do everything by hand. The benefit of having animals is that once you pick the crops they can come in and eat what is left. While the animals are eating they fertilize the ground too with their waste. The best kind of animal to have is the ones that tend to reproduce once they are 3 to 4 years old, and not having to wait 15 years before an elephant can reproduce. Over all there are around 140 domesticated animals, and some of them are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, camels, water buffalo, lamas, reindeer, yaks, muskox (ox), and cattle.    

Guns, germs, and steel: video

A man named Jared Diamond is a teacher at UCLA, and has his degree as a biologist, human-physiology, and he also enjoys bird watching. In Papua New Guinea Jared went there to study and watch birds. While he was there a man named Yahleh had asked him the question "Why you white men have so much cargo, and we have so little?" Jared did not know how to answer this question so he said that her would go and search for it. The word cargo to them means all material things. When people first came the white people made themselves superior to others. The New Guinea people are very smart and have the ability to make a great city. But in order to have that goo city they need advanced technology, a large population, and a well-organized work force. There is also a major problem with the food in Papua New Guinea, with hunting animal there is no guarantee that they can get food every day, for the animals have a mind of their own, and can go anywhere. They also use a food that is in the sego tree. It provides food for them, but it cannot be stored, therefore you cannot have a supply, or stock up on it. The food takes 3 to 4 days to process.

In the Middle East around 13000 years ago the people used barley and wheat, these are plentiful foods and they are able to be stored. But then a huge drought came over the Middle East, and we wonder how they survived. Well, Ian Kite is an archaeologist and he works in Drah. He and his team have found one of the first possible villages. Here in this building they believed that they have discovered a granary, where they would store their food. So, how did they get this food if there was a drought? Well we believe that they began to grow their own food. They also started to domesticate their food without even realizing it. Domestication is when people cross breed food (taking the best portion of food and re-planting it).    

Urban geography part 3

More notes on urban geography
Second urban revolution:
A large scale of people moved to cities to work in manufacturing, and this was possible becuse of:
1. the 2nd agricultural involution that improved food production and created a larger surplus
2. Industrialization, which encouraged growth of cities near industrial resources (like a snowball effect)

The second half of the century:
The nature of manufacturing changed and locations changed as well. Many factors have been abandoned, creating "rust-belts" out of once thriving industrial districts
An example is: Steel- most of the things we use are plastic, we no longer use steel as frequently as we use to. Therefor the steel industries are not needed as much as they were back then.

Zones of the city:
1. Central business district (CBD)
2. Central city (the CBD + older housings)
3. Suburb (outlining functionally uniform zone outside of the central city

Edge cities:
Suburban downtown, often located near key freeway intersections that often have:
1. office complexes
2. shopping centers
3. hotels
4. restaurants
5. entertainment facilities
6. sports complexes

Making cities in global core:
redlining= financial institutions refusing to lend money in certain neighborhoods
Blockbusting= realtors purposefully sell a home at a low price to African Americans and then solicit white residents to sell their homes and low prices, to generate "white flight"

Urban geography part 2

Today in human geography we continued to discuss the topic of urban geography.

Components to form cities:

1. An agricultural surplus

2. Social stratification (a leadership class)

Hearths of Urbanization:

Mesopotamia (Iraq)- 3500 BC

Nile River Valley (Egypt)- 3200 BC

Indus River Valley (India)- 2200 BC

Haung He An Wei River Valley (China)- 1500 BC

Mesomerica (The Americans)- 200 BC

These are an agricultural surplus and social stratification

Examples:

Indus River Valley:

Harappa and moheno-daro were two of the first cities of the Indus River Valley

They lived an equal lifestyle, keeping houses in equal size, no palaces, no monuments, and this idea was intricately planned.

Haung He An Wei River Valley:

The Chinese purposefully planned their cities too.

They are centered on a vertical structure, and had an inner wall built around the center.

They did not treat everyone here equally, for there were palaces and temples, but only for the leadership class.

Mesomerica: 

Mayan Aztec civilizations

Many ancient cities were theocratic centers where rulers were deemed to have divine authority and were god-kings.

Diffusion of Urbanization:
The Greek cities:
By 500 BC, Greeks were highly urbanized.
A network of more than 500 cities and towns made up the Greek empire.
Theses cities and towns were sitting on mainlands and islands.
Each city had an acropolis and a agora.
The Roman cities:
A system of cities and small towns that were linked together with roads and routes.
The Romans were the first to come up with connecting their cities with roads.
Sites of Roman cities were typically for trade.
A Roman city's form combines the acropolis and agora into one space.
Roman cities had extreme wealth and extreme poverty. Between 1/3 and 2/3's of the population was enslaved.

Urban Geography

Today in human geography we started a new and final unit for the semester. This new unit is called urban geography. A new unit also means new vocabulary. I believe that this unit will end up breaking down into 3 different parts, politics, culture, and economics. But that is just my guess.

City= a conglomeration of people/buildings clustered together to serve as a center of politics, culture, and economics.

Urban= the build up of the central city and the suburban realm- the city and the surrounding environs connected to the city

Facts:

Almost half(50%) of the Earth's population live in urban areas/cites.

A rural area can become urbanized quite quickly in the modern world.

Shenzhen, China is an example of a rural area becoming urbanized very quickly. It only took 25 years for that area to totally change.

The first urban revolution:

Before urbanized people often clustered in agricultural villages

Agricultural villages= a relatively small, egalitarian villages, where most of the population was involved in agriculture
About 10,000 years ago, people began living in agriculture villages.
They soon learned "growing", and now they have a ready supply food. By growing food you can stay in one pace and have the chance to become civilized.

The Outline of the Exam

1.      Introduction (Excellence)

a.      A Letter to Garcia= It is teaching us to stand up for ourselves, and do things for yourself.

b.      Socrates/ancient Greeks= He disobeyed the gods and corrupted the minds of Athens. He taught people to question why. “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

c.       Did You Know?/Shift Happens= The world is constantly changing. We are being trained for jobs that don not exist yet.

d.      Globalization= Things are always changing, and we can always learn something new. It means the interconnection of different parts of the world, it results in the expansion of international, cultural, economic, and political activates.

e.       Infrastructure= Things are always changing, and we can always learn something new. It means needing things like cell towers, electricity, and technology.

2.      Population and Migration

a.       Population pyramids=This is used to analyze growth (or decline) of fertility, mortality, and migration in citied. Know how to read them and identify them.

b.      Crude birth rate, crude death rate, RNI, TFR= The number of births per 1,000. The number of deaths per 1,000. Rate of Natural Increase= subtract the death rate from the birth rate then divide by 10, this gives you the annual growth rate. Total Fertility Rate= the average number of children born to women. To keep the world population the same the TFR needs to be 2.1

c.       Immigration/emigration, NMR= Net Migration Rate= the difference between the number of persons entering and leaving a country during a year.

d.      Push forces, pull forces= Push forces= reasons for leaving a country, examples: wars, religious issues, and unemployment. Pull forces= reasons for staying, examples: health care, better economic opportunity, and political freedom

e.       Developed nations, developing nations= Developed= has infrastructure. Developing= no infrastructure.

f.        God Grew Tired of Us=

3.      Cultural Geography= Parts of a groups everyday life, the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members.

a.       Language (bilingual nations, official language)= A bilingual language example is Canada’s national language is French and English. Official language= a set language for a certain country.

b.      Major religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism)= On worksheet

c.       Ethnic heritage= People who come from different backgrounds.

4.      Political Geography

a.       Country, nation, state, nation/state

b.      World Leaders of the 12 nations we studied (plus the US)

c.       Type of government, leader and title, recognize photographs

5.      Economic Geography

a.       Microfinance= a general term to describe financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services

b.      Infrastructure=

c.       Kiva= An example of microfinance

d.      Peace Corps

Exam Study Guide: Part 2

Religions:

Christianity:

2.2 billion (Largest in the world)

Called: Christians

Located: Europe, the Americans, southern Africa

Denominations: Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants

Founder: Jesus Christ

Holy Book: The Bible

Beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine

Clergy: the Pope is the head of the church

Islam:

1.5 billion (Second largest)

Called: Muslims

Location: Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa

Denominations: Sunnis and Shiites

Founder: Muhammad

Holy Book: Qur'an

Beliefs: monotheistic, Abrahamic, five pillars, see the purpose in life as serving to Allah

Hinduism:

1.1 billion (Third largest) oldest religion

Called: Hindus

Location: India

Holy Book: the Vedas- meant to be sung, reveals the truth of ancient sages

Founder: no distinct founder, rather a set of beliefs (like the belief in reincarnation)

Buddhism:

1.5 billion

Called: Buddhists

Location: Asia, China, Japan, U.S.

Founder: Siddhartha Gautama

Denominations: Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Amidist

Four Noble Truths and the eightfold path

Judaism:

14-18 million

Called: Jews

Location: Israel

Founder: Abraham

Holy Book: Talmud and the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament)

Beliefs: That God is one


World leaders:
Afghanistan: Islamic republic

Headed by President Hamid Karzai

He was a leader under Taliban

Is well reversed in several languages

In 2001 he warned the United States that Taliban was plotting against them

Brazil: Federal republic

Headed by President Dilma Rousseff

She disliked the military’s way of doing this, and because of that she was thrown into jail for 3 years, where she suffered torture. And battled thorough cancer. She is a very strong lady

Has been divorced 2 times

She had a degree in economics (very smart)

China: Communist state

Ruled by President Xi Jinping

Son of a revolutionary veteran, one of the Communist Party’s founding fathers

He married a folk singer, Peng Liyuan who is an army general

Leader of the Communist Party

His daughter goes to school in the U.S. (Harvard University)

France: Republic

Headed by Francois Hollande

Has had no previous experience in the government

His father is a physician and his mother is a social worker

            Has for kids, not married, but in a 30-year relationship

Germany: Federal republic

Headed by President Joachim Gauck and Chancellor Angela Merkel

            Angela is crazy smart

            She had been the chancellor since November 2005

            Has been voted most powerful woman in the world for the past 8 years

India: Federal republic

Headed by President Pranab Mukherjee

            Previously taught science and worked as a journalist

            One of the best finance ministers of the world

A man named Rajiv Ganghi took over as prime minister once Pranab’s mother had been killed. Since he lost his battle he decided to start his own party 

Iran: Theocratic republic

Ruled by Supreme Leader Ali Hoseini-Khamenei, and President Hasan Fereidun Ruhani

            Ali took part in street protest

            Was elected as president in 1981, and became the supreme leader in 1989

            Hansan has served in the Supreme National Security Council

            Was just elected President in June 2013

He has openly criticized the previous President for the way that he ran the country, he was also an American hater

Israel: Parliamentary democracy

Headed by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu

Shimon had to flee to Palestine because of religious issues.

            Became responsible for the military equipment after Arab had attacked them

            Organized the nuclear program

Won the Nobel Peace prize

           Binyamin grew up in the U.S.

Once his brother was killed he returned to Israel and started to advocate international cooperation in fighting terrorism

 Mexico: Federal republic

Headed by President Enrique Pena Pieto.

            His father was an engineer for electricity

“Trouble stays away from him”

He is married to an actress, and her title is “the first lady in Mexico”

Saudi Arabia: A kingdom

Ruled by Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, who is both King and Prime Minister

            The father of 22 children

            He is worth 21 billion dollars

            He was commander of the Saudi Arabian National Guard

            He has visited the Pope

Has granted women the right to vote and run in future elections, this was very uncommon in the area that they live in

     

The United Kingdom: Constitutional monarchy and Commonwealth realm

Ruled by Prime Minister David Cameron and Queen Elizabeth II

            Elizabeth became queen on February 6, 1952, her reign has 60 years and counting

        

David had his whole life planned out for him, but when his soon died he started to look at things differently

            He is the youngest prime minister

Venezuela: Federal republic

Headed by President Nicolas Maduro Moros

            Worked as a bus driver

            Worked with Hugo Chavez

Peace Corps Review:

Throughout the game I learned some facts. The microfinance program helps people in many different ways. Microfinance address the need of people who lived in a low populated area, with no money. They also have volunteers that work with farmers. The peace core works towards increasing family income, and they try to improve the environment for business. Throughout the game there were many issues that you had to solve, and it would give you information on what was right and what was wrong, but you had to choose. One of these examples was the occurrences of malaria, and it can be reduced by managing water resources. There was also another issue in the game and that was that the town lake was contaminated with pollution. The pollution most likely came from the people of the town.

Many girls don't get the opportunity to go to school and get an education. The UNICEF program helps these girls get into school. The countries that are poor and in need have allies of other countries that help them. The United States is one of these countries, and they consume and produce about a quarter of the world’s forest products, which helps them, by selling the country products so they have supplies. Also tress play a very important role in our environment.

These were some of the informational facts that the game gave me. The game is a new and different way to lean and I like it, hopefully we will be able to do this again with another unit topic.

Microfinance review:

Microfinance= a general term to describe financial services to low-income individuals or to those who do not have access to typical banking services

Microloans= loans people money to help them get a kick start in a small business that they think will be beneficial to their village or town

Another definition

Microloans=When a person lends a small amount of money to a developing business. Once the business is running good the leader will receive the money back

They can also help investments in infrastructure, education, and legal forms

They also give the opportunity to have choices

What does it do?

Provides people who don’t have the money to get a loan and start a business, also helps pay for insurance

Helps the local economy

It is an opportunity for the less fortunate

Allows people to builds their assets

Developing countries:

Most of the countries are poor, and they are the ones most likely to need help

Problems:

Malaria= a life threating transmitted mosquitoes    Doctors are working for a cure

Drought

Clean water

Famine

Poor health care

Pollution

Poverty

Loans and small businesses:

Help them get loan, housing and structure investments

Microlender= an organization that makes business loans to individuals who are not able to obtain financing from traditional lenders