Test Review!

                I arrived late to class today because of a stomach ache that kept me up all night; therefore, I slept in to catch up on my sleep. When I arrived in class, we were going over our very first test. All the questions we went over I for the most part understood and I think I got a majority of them right. After watching the video Guns, Germs, and Steel I really understood what it takes for a country to become civilized and in the twenty first century. I am ready for the test on ancient and recent Egypt that is coming, and I hope to have a good grade.

Sarah from Egypt

                On Friday, we talked to an Egyptian lady named Sarah through Skype. I thought she was very nice, and she knew and believed in what she was talking about. Our questions ranged from things about her personally and things about the revolution over all. I could tell that she was very proud of her country. One thing I found very interesting was when she answered the question, “do you think the revolution would have taken place without the internet?” I was honestly very surprised when she basically answered yes. After explaining that she has no way of knowing, she explained how even after they shut down all access to the internet she found that people were still planning riots and planning just fine. I thought that this was very inspiring since they kept on persisting even though they lost their main resource. 

Questions

1. Were you in a specific group (for example the Facebook group on the video) that planned to go against Mubarak?
2. Did you start any groups that reigned successful and popular in running against Mubarak?
3. In what ways did you personally use the internet to go against Mubarak?

4. Did you know anyone who was sent to jail or beaten?

5. Do you think you could have overthrown Mubarak without the internet and social websites?
6. What was the youngest age that you saw protesting?
7. What websites did you use to go against Mubarak?
8. How did your family feel about Mubarak?
9. How did your family feel that you personally were against Mubarak?
10. What was the closest that you came to being sent to jail?

Gigi's Revolution

In class today we went over and preformed our Egypt raps. I thought that they were all very good. After that we watched a video about a girl named Gigi trying to get freedom for her. Because her family is a part of the Egyptian elite, her parents and family were all against it. She studied at the American University of Kiro and spent some years in California. She feels that no one of her family understands how she feels and what she is fighting for. Her sister feels as if their ruler is a “father figure.” After this, they were filming on the street and a man became confused and thought that they were bothering her.  Gigi’s explanation is because she believes that their ruler has had such a negative impact on them that people are always assuming the worse things. 

Egypt Rap

Down in Egypt

Scribes writing scripts
Also known as Hieroglyphics

Slaves building a huge pyramid

That definitely wasn’t hid

Now impossible to build

The pyramids are all old and chilled
Once made by King Tut
Sittin there in his little hut

Many years later
When things were much greater 

People came to find more Hieroglyphics

They are basically mini pics
Symbols of all sorts of things!

Then out of the bloom

There were mummies still in there tomb
With stuff Egyptians thought they could use

This process was called mummification
Although overwhelming

These facts are not a hallucination! 
Were still researching today

And I know you want to say

Ill go to Egypt any day

Egyptian Pyramids

Egyptian Pyramids:
* the ancient Egyptian pyramids were no small feat to construct
* some people think that at least some scholars believe in aliens building pyramids
 
* some people believe it took numerous years, usually decades, for even one of the ancient Egyptian pyramids  to be assemble
* it was traditional for a pharaoh to begin construction on a pyramid not long after he took the throne and that the building process might last almost the entire length of his reign
* King Khufu's great pyramid is the largest pyramid
         - It is well known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, standing at 146 meters
         - was not the first pyramid to be built
* His father, King Snefru, built a number of impressive pyramids himself 

Egyptian Pyramids!

Pyramids:

* some are among the largest man-made constructions ever conceive

* one of the most potent and enduring symbols of Ancient Egyptian civilization

* they were constructed as burial monuments 

* most were built during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods

* Who built the pyramids:

         - they were Egyptians who lived in villages developed and overseen by the pharaoh's supervisors

Essay

                For this essay, I am going to take what I learned in class and analyze and summarize Jared Diamond’s theory. I am going to talk about what his theory is all about and at the end I am going to say what I think of his theory. Because his theory is based off of where he lived in Papua New Guinea, it’s a pretty one sided answer. After hearing his story, I had no idea that Papua New Guinea had a twenty-first century life anywhere on its island. Jared Diamond’s theory is a very simple thought for such a big debate, and some might say it is too simple.

                His theory all started off when a New Guinean man asked him why white men had so much more cargo than the rest of the island. Jared wondered the same thing considering that Papua New Guinea has been a civilization for over 40,000 years and recently stopped using stone tools. He came to find that New Guineans are used to us having so much stuff also known as cargo that they think it is powerful and they are just simply used to us having more of it. Then, Jared knew that there was more of an explanation that that, so he took his research “back in time” to 13,000 years ago. He came to find that there were a lot of forest, trees, and plants which were easy to hunt and gather. That is just what they did; people back then would go around in small groups and hunt and gather plants, animals, and fruits. Jared realized that this is how some of the New Guineans are still living today. This was an issue because hunting was unreliable and inconsistent. People in the Middle East could just plant wheat and barley and would last for a long time, creating a surplus, and it was easy to plant unlike Papua New Guineas sago tree. This tree lasted only about seven days, was not nearly nutritious as wheat and barley, and it takes so much more time to plant. After Jared learned a little about plant history of Papua New Guinea and the Middle East he moved to animals. 9,000 years ago, the interactions between people and animals changed. People began to have a more controlling title over animals and would domesticate them for their meat and fur. Jared realized that this was another reason why New Guinea was suffering. New Guinea didn’t have native animals like: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, horses, camels (two types), water buffalo, donkeys, llamas, reindeer, yaks, methane, and cattle. All they had were pigs that they imported from a different country. This was another one of the issues New Guinea had with development. Jared purposed that New Guinea was simply not geologically lucky. They had all the smarts and brain power, but they didn’t have the supplies they needed to prosper like the world around them.

                Could this simple explanation be the reason for such a slow productive area? Well, after we took a further look into Papua New Guinea I think it is partially true. Finding that New Guinea has things like gold and coffee, I find it hard to believe that this is why they are so far behind. In a while, I think that the highlands of New Guinea will soon realize what they need to become like the world around them. I think that they will soon begin to import more animals and crops from the Middle East, and from the main part of Papua New Guinea. Because I think this solution only applies to the highlands of Papua New Guinea, I can’t fully agree with Jared Diamonds answer. 

Time to Review!

            We have a test tomorrow, so today in class we prepared for the whole entire thing. We reviewed about how we will basically be tested on Papua New Guinea and the video we watched in class.  We talked about Jared Diamond and his “race back in time” to find out why Papua New Guinea was so out of date. It is because of being geologically lucky. It’s all about having the right crops and animals in your area. We talked about the saga tree and the characteristics of that and how it is not considered a geologically lucky plant. We went over what the characteristics of a good plant and animal were. Finally, we talked about the big essay at the end of the test and how we can use all of our blog posts to help us with it. 

Free Class!

                In western civilization class today, we took a day off for our hard work! First, we started off talking about Morgan Ray and her injured nose. She told us that her face hurt really bad and said that it was because she broke her nose at her cheerleading tournament. Even though this is very tragic, the girl who accidentally broke her nose was very sorry, and in addition she sprained her ankle. For the rest of class I worked on my math homework and listened to music on youtube. It made me feel good that we got rewarded for our hard work and it made it a lot easier tonight when I was doing all of my homework. 

Papua New Guinea

                Today in class we continued talking about Papua New Guinea, but instead of talking about how poor they are, we talked about how they are also living in the twenty first century, just like us. All the information was surprising, especially after seeing their hard life in the video. When I saw that the capital city was so prosperous and had so many buildings, it made me want to live there and it is still growing by so much! I think that that was one of the most surprising things, how much Papua New Guinea is growing. They are growing at a rate of 10%! Compared to the world, they are the sixteenth highest growing country. In class, I learned so much about Papua New Guinea that I would have never guessed about them after watching that video. 

Guns, Germs, and Steel final part

                Today in class we watched the final part of the movie. The last theory that Jared Diamond came up with had to do with geography and surplus. The Middle East began to prosper, creating a great surplus of crops, livestock, and overall just food. This is why The Middle East had time to make new ideas and inventions while New guinea on the other, barely had time to eat. Also, when The Middle Eastern civilization was living in the fertile crescent, they had everything they needed, but when the ecology began to get bad all they had to do was taking the stuff that they found and move it with them. New Guinea is an island, so they couldn’t just spread to a different place when things were rough. Finally, at the end of class we also talked about how that might have been only one minor part of New Guinea and other parts might be living similar to us. 

Guns, Germs, and Steel Part 3

Today in class we watched another part of the movie Guns, Germs, and Steel. This part of the video was mostly about the domestication of animals. First, James Diamond talked about the fact that about 9000 years ago, the interactions people had with animals began to change. People began to “control” animals by breeding them and controlling where they roamed and where they stayed. Animals were very helpful because of their skin useful for warm clothes; their waste is a good fertilizer for crops, their wool, and their meat. Because of their domestication, people no longer had to hunt or gather animals; they were simply raising the animals.  Here is a list of all the animals over 100 pounds that have been domesticated out of 148: pigs, goats, sheep, cows, horses, camels (two types), water buffalo, donkeys, llamas, reindeer, yaks, methane, and cattle. Unfortunately, New Guinea was not fortunate enough to be blessed with good crops, and they were also not blessed with good animal power, either. Could this be why they are not as developed as the world surrounding them?