1/31

Early farmers experienced that they could not maintain they crops because the amount of water they would get would not be sufficient enough to sustain the crops. People moved because of the insufficient water source. They moved across the same latitude line. 20 million tons of wheat is consumed by Americans. This class is not bad so far and I am enjoying it. I still do not want to be here though but it is okay and I am not trying to complain. I just want to go home now, but I still have one more class to get through today.

1/28

Guns, Germs, and Steel

• early middle eastern people became surrounded by fields of domesticated crops and livestock
• animal domestication
• goats ans sheep were the first domesticated animals in the world
• New Guineans never used plows because they did not have the animals to do so
• 14 species of domesticated animals over one hundred pounds- goats, sheep, pigs, cows, Arabian camels, horses, donkeys, Bactrian camels, water buffalo, llamas, rain deer, yaks, mithans, Bali cattle
• None of the animals listed above are from New Guinea, Australia, or Sub-Saharan Africa, or North America
• South America only domesticated llamas
• and the rest of the domesticated animals are from Asia, North Africa, and Europe, and the Middle East
• New Guineans were not productive enough and everyone was to busy searching for food to feed themselves that they could not develop technological breakthroughs   

1/25

Guns, Germs, Steel

• because hunting is unpredictable most gather crops
• Sago- a tree that is edible, they carry 70 pounds of sago, low on protein, and does not last long and can not live off of it
• Middle East- barly, wheat grew naturally and they are more plant-able and nutritious . Drought changed the earth and people adapted 
• Ian Kuijt- Canadian Archaeologist
• Draa- village near Jordan River, one of the first villages that is being dug up
• Granary- a place to store grain
• people eventually started growing their own food and stayed in one spot
• Plant Domestication- grown and harvested
• China- rice
• Africa- sorghum, millet, yam
• Americas- corn, squash, beans
• New Guinea- low protein and unsubstantial crops
• Geographical luck- some regions are more naturally fortunate than others

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Guns, Germs, and Steel

• Europeans dominate the world
• Jarred Diamond- traveled the world to explore the roots of the world, the have/have not- some people have some things and some people do not have things. He is a professor at UCLA, biologist, specialist in Human physiology, author, and bird watcher. He is at Papua New Guinea to discover the inequalities of the world and get a better understanding of how it got to be that way.
• people have been living in New Guinea for 40,000 years and their lifestyle is still a hunter/gatherer living
• Yali, a man who Diamond met on a beach when he arrived at New Guinea, said, "Why do you white men have so much cargo and us Guineans have so little?"
• Cargo- material possessions; evidence of white man's power
• Europeans believe power is defined by race and that they are more superior
• Three characteristics of great civilization- advanced technology, large populations, and a well organized work force.
• Prehistoric- before things were written down
• 13,000 years ago- middle east- hunter/gatherer lifestyle

1/22

It is the first day of the second semester and it was the first day of Western Civilization. We just told all the new people how to set up their blog and all the people that were in this class before, just had to save the link to Mr. Schick's blog. This is the last class of the day and all I had to do was write my blog, so I am okay with that. I just want to go home, but I have a Mock Trial competition and I will get back at school around six or seven o'clock at night. I just want to go to sleep and not go to school tomorrow, but I can not do that, so I am a little bit upset, but whatever. Thankfully this day has gone by pretty quickly, so hopefully it will not be to much longer before I can go home. I hope that when I get into the building for my Mock Trial competition, that it is warm because it is freezing in here and I literally have chills.

1/18

This is the last blog for Human Geography. I am bored and do not want to be here right now. I wish that we got off today, but whatever. I am going to be in Mr. Schick's Western Civilization class next Semester and I am okay with that, but blogs are just going to be annoying. I liked this past semester because it was relaxed and I was expecting it to be harder than it was. I can not believe that we are already half way through the year. I am glad that it went by so quickly though, I do not know what it would be like if it is still December. There are only five months to go thankfully.

1/17

Human Geography was a good class. There are a few things I wish that did not happen this year, but over all I liked this class. I liked that you gave us Power Points to take notes from most of the time and not the packets; however, you did still give us packets, but you helped us takes notes from them. I did not enjoy doing the blogs, they did get annoying every once and a while, but they were not that bad. I like that you asked us our opinions on curtain topics and let us talk about them and what are opinions are on them. Over all I am quit satisfied with my results of the year and this class was over all pretty interesting. I liked that we did not just write stuff down all the time and we listened to a podcast and watched videos.