9/27

Today some people finished their maps, blogs, and or other homework. I decided to finish my English homework. I really hate the assignment we are doing because I hate being forced to write. I love to create short stories, but I hate having to read and write in order to pass an assignment. It is alright though because I am almost done. At least after I finish my blog for today and my English assignment, I will be done homework. Thankfully I am about half way done this blog now. I am feeling better about my homework now. I am still dreading English. I really like my Human Geography class, we talk about a lot of interesting topics. That is why I don't mind writing these blogs. We are given more freedom to write what we want to write, unless we are taking notes then we are a bit more restricted on how we can write the blogs.

Lableing Maps

Today we labeled three different maps.  We had to label the 7 continents, 5 oceans, Equator, Prime Meridian, where our ancestors were originally from, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, the International Date Line, and where John Carroll is located. It was a tedious project and I found it annoying. I much rather have Mr. Schick go on a rant about a single topic. I generally like it, he gives a lot of information about how the people thought about the topic then verses now.  I like talking about how there are different ways to see the world. I, however, do not like taking a whole class to find locations of places on a map. I find it boring and tedious work. I didn't take long before I figured out where all the places were and how to draw them though. I don't think I did very well drawing the lines and other locations.

Latitude and Longitude

Parallels are arcs drawn parallel to the equator and at right angles to meridians, Each is numbered according to a system known as latitude. Values range from 0 degrees ( equator) to 90 degrees north or south

Every point on earth can be measured precisely using latitude and longitude
Further accuracy can be achieved by dividing each degree into 60 minutes and each minute into 60 seconds

Earth as a sphere is divided into 360 degrees of longitude
Divide 360 degrees by 24 time zones  for each hour of day equals 15 degrees

Greenwich Means Time (GMT) is located at the prime meridian (0 degrees longitude)
Passes through Royal Observation at Greenwich England
Master reference time for all points on Earth

Maps and Maps

Today we learned about the different types of maps and the development of the different maps. After we learned about the development of the maps, we watch a short part of a video and learned how the Mercator map is biased compared to the Peter's projection. The Mercator incorrectly show how some continents are shown. Greenland is half the size of Africa, where it should be about ten times smaller. Russia is also distorted. They went into information about how the subconscious mind creates the idea of "larger means more important."   Europeans were trying to show the spots that they think are important. Which is also why the America's are on the left because we from left to right, so our mind thinks that it is more important. In reality the largest continent is Africa, not Russia and Greenland is not half the size of Africa. Some people think that the map is biased and wrongly show, however in my opinion, the Europeans were just trying to show the spots that are most important to them.

9/19 notes

Key Issues

• How do Geographers describe where things are?
• Why is each point of earth unique?
• Why are different places similar?

Lessons

• 1.1.1: Explain the differences between early maps and modern maps
• 1.1.2: Describe the role of map scale and projections and making maps
• 1.1.3: Explain how latitude longitude are used to locate points on earth's surface

Geography- the study of where things are found on earth's surface and the reasons for their locations

Two questions Human Geographers ask are:

• Where are people and  activities found on earth?
• Why are the found there?

Map- two dimensional or flat scale model of earth's surface, or certain areas of it

Today we took a test on Excellence. I think I did well on it. I was having trouble on the question about polis. I took an educated guess and I wrote the word vote. When I looked back at the definition, I realized I was wrong, but that is all right. For the essay I wrote about why I think his quote, " The unexamined life is not worth living," is still relevant today and why I believe it is still important. I wrote about how modern technology got us here and if we stop wondering and asking questions, we will never fulfill what the capabilities of the human being. Over all, I think I may have only have gotten one or two wrong. I am anxious to see what my grade is and to see which ones I got wrong, so I know what I may need to work on in the future.

Socrates

September 18, 2018 is our first test. It is on A Message to Garcia, Socrates, the ancient Greeks, and the importance of Excellence. I am writing about Socrates and how he gives people a reason to think. He makes the statement of "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates asks a series of questions in order to get you thinking. When he was put on trial his defense was " It's my job to be the gadfly to the lazy, sluggish horse that is Athens." I should actually be rewarded with free dinners for life."  He was found guilty by a jury of 550 male citizens. He was sentenced to death by hemlock. He was given an opportunity to escape, but he refused in order to prove his point. I believe that his words are still applicable to today's world because everyone needs to make up their own mind, not have their opinions based on others. People take advantage of people because they don't want to contradict others, or want to have to make their own decision.

9/13 Notes

The Controversy

• Athens was great city which attracted brilliant thinkers
• visitors from all over the world shard their knowledge of astronomy, medicine, meteorology, literature, philosophy, and all things scientific
• this was often at odds with traditional teachings which centered around the Greek gods which got young minds thinking and questioning

The Trial

• charged with two crimes: corruption of Athens' youth, and impiety (not believing in the gods of the state)
• his defense: " It's my job to be the gadfly to the lazy, sluggish horse that it Athens"- "I should actually be rewarded with dinners for life."
• jury of 500 citizens found him guilty (279 to 221?)
• sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock
• he had the opportunity to escape, but HE REFUSED, proving his loyalty to Athenian democracy

"You Idiot"

• An idiot in Athenian democracy was someone who was characterized by self-centeredness and concerned almost exclusively with private- rather than public- affairs
• In Athenian democracy, idiots were born and citizens were made through education
• Declining to take part in public life, such as democratic government of the polis city-state was considered dishonorable

9/12 Notes

• imbecility: incapability, feebleness, stupidity
• stenographer: a person who takes dictation in shorthand
• missive: a letter, especially a long or official one
• Initiative to Excellence- arete- Excellence of any kind-moral virtue-fulfillment of purpose or function- the act of living up to one's full potential
• arete involves all of the potential and abilities available to humans
• the highest human potential is knowledge- all other abilities are derived from this- knowledge about knowledge itself
• Agora- a place in Greece where meetings were held about important things with everyday people
• polis: political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens origin of the words politics, metropolitan, poll
• 508 BCE- The Birth of Democracy
• Socrates- young man worked as stonemason-he fought in Peloponnesian War- his working class background and battlefield experiences may have shaped the way he viewed the world- met with young students in workshops just outside the agora-asked a series of questions to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge
• led to scientific method, and the way you proved or disproved your theory through experimentation

9/10 Notes

• Published March 1899
• inspirational essay
• republished as book
• 40 million copies sold
• translated to 37 languages
• made into movie twice, 1916, 1936
• "take a message to Garcia"- take initiative 
• setting: Spanish-American war
• Garcia- revolutionary of Cuba fighting for independence from Spain
• Rowan- Army officer- West Point class of 1881
• McKinley- William McKinley president of U.S. 1897-1901
• Tallest mountain in America called Denali renamed to Mt. McKinley and later changed back to Denali
• perihelion- when a planet is closet to the sun, and at its brightest
• Slipshod- careless, lackadaisical, remiss

A Message To Garcia

A Message to Garcia was written by Elbert Hubbard. It was based on a true story about a lieutenant during the Spanish-American War. In the story Andrew Summers Rowan was given the task from the president, to deliver a message to Garcia. Rowan excepted the task without hesitation. Elbert Hubbard was trying to inspire young men. He wanted to show that being courageous and willing to hold out any task given to them. He wanted to show that hard work and commitment is what should be given by all young men. Hubbard uses Rowan to show that hard work and commitment not only gives self-worth, but also goes for the betterment of others.

My First Day Of School

The events of my first day were a bit unsettling, but as the day went on I seemed to relax more and more. First things first, the beginning of the day. It started off with being in a rush because I was running late. Advisory came and I had to ask for help to open my locker. Once I finally got my books I went to my next class, then lunch. After lunch I went back to my locker. It took me ten tries to get it open. After that everything started to run more smoothly and I ended my day satisfied. It is the second day of school and I finally figured out how to get my locker open after a few tries and I am not running late to as many classes. I guess you can say I am much further ahead then most, but I still have a long way to go.