First day blog

Today in class we took a 26 question test on Guns, Germs and steel. I believe I got an A on this test. My memory in this subject was pretty good. It was a pretty good concept to remember. One of the questions kind of stuck me was the one about why the people moved away from the fertile crescent. I said disease, but I was not 100% sure. After the test we examined a video on beautiful shots of planet earth and did our blog. Also talked about flight reacts. The photos we thought were animated turn out to be real.  They were pretty amazing shots and I wish I could honestly be there

Today in class we finally finished the video Guns, Germs and steel. We sort of all came to a conclusion on Yali's question with the help of Jared Diamond. "Why you white men have so much cargo, and us new Guineans have so little." Well if Jared Diamond is in fact correct, the answer to that question is geographic luck. After the video Mr.Schick went on cia.gov and we explored some facts about New Guinea, when you look at the entire country and not just the people in the rain forest, you find that New Guinea actually isn't doing all that bad. They have good life expectancy, there money isn't declining, they are modernizing, don't really have to many world conflicts, the population is increasing. Life in New Guinea isn't all that bad. Finally, we watched videos on the Philippine volcanic eruptions. It is pretty devastating, the volcano smoke is now creating it's own storms inside the clouds, it's pretty awful.

Today in class we moved forward in to the guns, germs and steel. This section of the video focused hard on the animal aspect of things. How goats started the bases of farming technology in civilization. Today we learned, there were 14 species over 100 pounds used for domestication. Parts such as, new guini, north america, Saharan Africa, didn't have the luxury's of good animals and crops such as wheat, the middle east did. Eventually through time those places took materials over to there homeland and started getting after it, unfortunately New Guini never got that chance. They never had the right soil for certain crops, didn't have the right animals for labor, and they still today live like they did 10,000 years ago. Jared Diamond is closing the gap on his theory, but for now, he explains it's just geographic luck.

Today in class we watched more of the documentary called Guns, Germs, and steel. Today was really a focus on the ancient livings of the first people on earth. This mainly thrived in the middle east where one of the first ever villages was discovered. This village had the very first wheat and barley silo, the village thrived because they had large amounts of food to satisfy them for long periods of time. Also, it focused on how after making multiple discoveries, the new guineas were also living 10,000 years ago, but not in the same living conditions. They weren't provided food that lasted them a long time, they had to gather and eat, couldn't real store. Even now, the new guineas live the exact same way there ancestors did 10,000 years ago. It's truly amazing to see the advancements in technology, but yet there are still people living in the Pleistocene Epoch era(after the ice age).

Today in class we watched more and explained the video more in depth. First thing we talk about was why the new guinis are still in the old ages life style. The coast is very modern, has cars, phones, buildings, everything. So why don't these people just go there. Well, remember when the Europeans first found out about these people. They were amazed at the technology and advancements they had brung, because they don't see the outside world. So because of that case, these people don't even realize there is modern day civilization less than 50 miles away. This also has to do with their lifelong culture of their family and ancestors.

Today in class we took notes on Jared Diamonds Guns, Germs and steel. This book and documentary are about how the world became so unequal and what the facts are behind it. A short summary about his ideas is how chance advantages can lead to early success in a highly competitive environment. He is trying to figure out and express the idea of unequal opportunities presented in the world. One main idea is the white supremacy all over the world. People ask why power is determined by race.