2-23-06
Sorry it took a little while to post but I have been busy the last two nights so I have not had time to do this post untill now. What we did on thursday the 23 was take the North America test for the majority of the entire block. After we were finished with the test people were able to work on their maps of Sartell, which were due on friday.
Abortion
These websites talk a little bit about the law that could ban abortion in South Dakota. The last time a case like this was brought up in the supreme court was in 2000. The court by one vote invalidated a state prohibition because it lacked a health exception for the mother. The South Dakota Govoner, Mike Rounds, say's he is "inclined" to sign the bill that would ban all abortions except for those that are neccessary to save the mother. It is very interesting to read both sides of this arguement and how so many people are for and against it. I like the idea of getting rid of abortion but I also think rape should be an exception to the law. It is fair to make someone have a child if they made the choice to have sex but if it was forced (like in a rape) it shouldn't be their life long responsiblity to take care of a child.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-21-abortion-case_x.htm?csp=22_SCT
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/ABORTION_SOUTH_DAKOTA?SITE=MNCLO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I started reading the first chapter on Latin America in our text books. About 2 pages into it, I came across this really interesting section on rainforest deforestation. With that, I decided to do a little research on my own. I ended up finding a couple fascinating sites. One in particular described different facts on our world's rainforests. Here's a bunch of thought provoking facts I discovered:
1. The Amazon Rainforest covers over a billion acres, encompassing areas in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and the Eastern Andean region of Ecuador and Peru. If Amazonia were a country, it would be the ninth largest in the world.
2. The Amazon Rainforest has been described as the "Lungs of our Planet" because it provides the essential environmental world service of continuously recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. More than 20 percent of the world oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
3. At least 80% of the developed world's diet originated in the tropical rainforest. Its bountiful gifts to the world include fruits like avocados, coconuts, figs, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, bananas, guavas, pineapples, mangos and tomatoes; vegetables including corn, potatoes, rice, winter squash and yams; spices like black pepper, cayenne, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, sugar cane, tumeric, coffee and vanilla and nuts including Brazil nuts and cashews.
4. We are losing Earth's greatest biological treasures just as we are beginning to appreciate their true value. Rainforests once covered 14% of the earth's land surface; now they cover a mere 6% and experts estimate that the last remaining rainforests could be consumed in less than 40 years.
With that said, the Amazon is extremely crucial in our lives. Although we tend not to think about it, rainforest deforestation is a heavy problem we carry. The loss of land, could have us paying severe consequences. Did you know that scientists have identified over 3,000 plants that are active against cancer cells. 70% of these plants are found in rainforests!
The article also stated that if we left the rainforest intact, harvesting essential nuts, fruits, medicine plants, etc then it would have more economic value as opposed to it being chopped down and used for timber/grazing land. In my opinion, the Amazon rainforest should be considered a precious and important land area. With an array of benefits, I can't help but ask one simple question..."why ruin something so valuable for our world?"
*You should definately check out these sites, for quick and interesting facts.
RAINFOREST FACTSWHAT'S THE AMAZON BASIN?
Today in class we were looking into NAFTA and how the U.S., Mexico, and Canada are all trading between one another. Well I was interested in finding more out on the history of NAFTA and what has gone on with it since it started. This website-
NAFTA explains the history and various events that happened with NAFTA. It is a website from a while ago so it talks mostly about early years, but it is still interesting. One thing I found interesting was the article about Alberta trying to have low labor and how NAFTA was trying to regulate. If Alberta would be found to have lower wages then they would have to pay a fine to NAFTA.
Summary for 2-21
I forgot i had to post on Tuesday, so here it is:
During class, we took notes about the 5 phases
Phase 1- before 1820's- English and Africans
Phase 2-1820-1870-Irish and German
Phase 3-1870-1920-Southern and Eastern Europe
Phase 4-1920-1970-Canada and Latin America (overall #'s down)
Phase 5-1970-present-Asia and Latin America (overal #'s up)
we took more notes on religion in North America
Homework
we worked on the map of sartell, and we got a notecard to write stuff on for the test that was on thusday (today)
Globalization in Latin America
While trying to find an article that pertains to Latin America, our next chapter, I ran across this one pertaining to globalization. It shows the most globalized economies in Latin America. Panama topped the list, followed by the Dominican Republic and then Costa Rica.
The guide looked at six main indicators to determine the level globalization. "These include exports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, imports of goods and services as a percent of GDP, foreign direct investment as a percent of GDP, tourism receipts as a percent of GDP, remittances as a percent of GDP and Internet penetration." The country of Argentina was last because of its low level trades and foreign direct investment.
I think it’s great that countries are continuing to globalize with technology, economics and different cultures. By expanding our culture we can increase trade and monetary affairs, while also having an impact on many global issues.
Latin America Globalization
For those of us who claim that we can run a country better than our president(s), you are in luck. I present to you a website which allows you to control your country and every issue is undergoes; there are so many options you may choose if you like; flag design and color, type of government, and decisions determining the economic success of your country.
http://www.nationstates.org/
World's Richest Countries
Today while taking notes, we were discussing the world’s richest countries and some people were not for sure if the United States was in fact the richest. I found this website that list the top 50 richest countries in the world. The United States is number one on this list. I was surprised to see that Australia was richer than Japan. I really didn’t think that Australia would be so high on the list. Here is a link to the website with the top 50 countries:
http://www.cylist.com/List/400300719/
Notes 2-22-06
Today in class we took notes and worked on our Sartell maps that are now due on Friday.
Notes.
Affluence- North America has the world's most powerful economy & has the wealthiest population. NA has an abundant resource base- direct extraction of natural resources make up 3% of U.S economy and 6% of Canada's economy. - Opportunities for agriculture- NA has highly mechanized and productive. Agriculture employs 2.6% of U.S. and 3.7% of Canada's labor force. Geography of farming in North America is determined by- Diverse environments, continental & global markets for food, historical patterns of settlement & agriculture. Industrial raw materials- North America has abundant recourses, but still imports raw materials. U.S. produces 12% of worlds oil and consumes 25%. Connectivity fosters economic growth- Connectivity- how well regions are linked together by transportation and community. Major economic activities of North America- Study map on page 68 for the test. The sectoral transformation- changes in employment structures signaled modernization. Sectoral transformation: The evolution of the nations labor force for primary sector activities to secondary, tertiary & quaternary activities. Primary natural resource extraction, secondary manufacturing industrial, tertiary services, quarternery information processing. Today tertiary & quatemary activities employ more than 70% of the U.S. & Canadian labor force. Regional economic patterns. Location factors: varied influences that explain why an economic activity is located where it is. Factors include proximity to natural resources, connectivity, productive labor, market demand, capital investment. Major manufacturing regions: megalopolis & Midwest, sunbelt areas, and west coast locations. Other influences on economic activities: Government spending, access to innovation and research, agglomeration economics. North America and the global economy- North America play a pivotal role in the global economy. Spurred the creation of the International monetary fund. U.S. and Canada members of group seven, a collection of powerful countries that regularly confer on world political & economic issues. Patterns of trade- North America is prominent in both the sale and purchase of goods and services in international economy. Patterns of investment in North America- Foreign capital comes to NA as investment in NA stocks and bonds and a foreign directed investment. Doing business globally- Many U.S. firms have established abroad, U.S. pension dollars invested in Japan and Europe. Persisting social issues- Wealth and Poverty, strong contrasts among communities and ethnicities, Black households income are 64% of the national average & Hispanic’s are 72% of the national average. Regional contrast- In U.S. the N.E. and West are the richest regions. In Canada it's Ontario and British Columbia. North American poverty rates have fallen, but problems still remain- jobs, education, health care chronic disease, aging, and gender gap. Remember test is tomorrow
Class Summary 2-21-06
Notes
Five distinct phases determined by immigrants’ number and source regions:
- Before 1820: English and African
- 1820 – 1870: Irish and German
- 1870 – 1920: South and Eastern Europeans
- 1920 – 1970: Canada and Latin America (Numbers are down)
- 1970 and on: Latin America and Asia (Numbers gradually rise)
- Canada – 40% Protestant and 25% Roman Catholic
- North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
- Federal States – States that allocate power below the national level to the states (US)
- Unitary States - Power allocated to the national level (old USSR and current Russia)
- French speakers are considering secession from Canada
Homework
Work on the map of Sartell. Study for test on Thursday.
In our second block class today the discussion, thanks to Bugsy, came up about anti-smoking laws. I find that really interesting because I would love for there to be no smoking in all restaurants around the United States. I found this site
http://www.howtolaw.co.nz/html/ml290.asp, which my link will not work for, and it explains the changes made to smoke free laws. SMOKE-FREE ENVIRONMENTS ACT 1990 places restrictions on smoking in public, on smoking in the workplace and on sales of cigarettes and tobacco to under-18s, but some of the most important changes came in the act of 2003. It explains how it's illegal to give cigarettes to minors, ban from smoking in schools, and indoor workplaces. Also on this site it explains the deal with cigarettes with teens, cigarette advertising, and smoking in public. It is interesting to see all the different criteria for different aspects of smoking.
This article is a survey of world wide quality of life. It compairs many cites in the world based on crime, internation relations, political stability, etc. It in no way surprized me that Baghdad scored lowest. It was published in March 2005, so since then there are probably a few more countries that could be added to the list of lows. Anyone else think that Iran should be talked about for being low if it were updated?
World-Wide Quality of Life
This article i found talks about Nafta (North American Free Trade Agreement), more like United States job loss agreement. Although the principles upon which it was created were good, they were never followed in a good way. It was supposed to make the US, Canada, and Mexico equal (which would mean bringing Mexico up quiet a bit). However, it ended up moving many US jobs to Mexico because of cheep labor. I chose this article because it takes a strong democratic view point on the issue and shows that just because the government does something and they say that it will be good for us doesn't mean it turns out good. I think we do need something such as the Nafta, but not one where it means US job loss.
Crap Agreement
City Core
Since we were last talking about how cities grow, i thought this article might be interesting. It's all about how schools might have to be closed because of how and where the city grows. St. Cloud Tech is a school that needs to be addressed in the next 10 years. It's strange because it's such a big school. I hear about Tech almost everyday. St. Cloud wants to rebiuld schools to have a (for the lack of a better word) better core. They want the city core to be stronger.
The article talks about the success of schools in bad areas. The success of some schools where 64% of the students recieved free or reduced lunches.
It's an interesting article that talked about many things that we don't understand because of where we live. Our town isn't as large at St. Cloud...yet.
And, our
Dance Team had some pictures.
~Manifesto
Why Move Into the City?
In College Geography we have been discussing how so many people are moving into the urban city and out of the rural areas. I was interested in this, and it really is a question in my mind. Why are so many people moving into the fast-paced city and out of the country? It is a known fact that there are many more factories in the heart of the city than on the outskirts of a town that could cause potential hazard to a person's health. Also, many times there is a higher crime rate in highly populated urban areas verses rural areas. I dont't think these are very good reasons as to why a family would want to move into the city, do you? It seems to me that our world is becoming so industrialized that we are too lazy to do some of the daily work and upkeep that we would need to do if we lived in the rural part of the city verses the urban areas. In this article
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4046/is_200404/ai_n9396966 there are possible reasons as to why people choose to move where they do as well as some of the things that should influence the choice tp move. A few of the reasons stated in the article for rural to urban moves are job convenience, education programs, cost, and the safety of a specific area. Read the article for more reasons and possibilities as to why people move where they do, and if the city is really where it's at.
Ok. So, recently an offensive picture of Muhammed has been published in a Danish newspaper. Well, this really caught fire to a bunch of Muslims and, in summary, they are mad. However, their reactions in Paris and and Denmark have been quite striking to me. I mean, we have Jesus featured in South Park and Family Guy shooting up villians and doing everything Jesus really is not. But are we getting up screaming and yelling? Not really. Most Christians seem quite calm and collected. Perhaps Muslims are much more sensitive about Muhammed, and that is perfectly natural. But we too are senstive when they cut off our friend's and famliy's heads right in front of a camera. And yet still, are Americans beating the living hell out of Muslims, ravaging the streets for vengenace. No...Are we flipping their cars over in the streets? No...Are we burning their stores, parading around their offices? No, no, and finally....no. Plus, like America, the Danish have every right to publish whatever they want. It's a free country! Freedom of speech! So why the reaction? Why Muslims, why are you all so very very mad?
However, their is a supposed answer and counterpoint. Muslims, apart from all other religions, are probably the most alienated from Westren civilization. Like yesterday's communists, Muslims are facing increasing amounts of pressure from prejudice. In a way, from what I get out of it, they feel a need to strike back from all the oppression. And, with anyone, this is perfectly natural. But Muslims, the violent ones at least, must realize that the answer to striking out is not through violence. There are other ways then burning up Paris or arguing against a law that has been written in stone (freedom of speech).
Do you agree. OR DO YOU DARE TO DISAGREE!!!!!(loud booming voice)
The World is Flat
Earlier this summer my grandpa and I were talking about the topic of globalization and he was giving me some facts that he had read about. He was making reference to a book he had read called, “The World is Flat,” which is a book written by Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times. I had the chance to tell him that we were studying globalization in College Geo. By the way, has anyone read the book, “The World is Flat?” I haven’t been able to yet.
One interesting thing he brought up to me that he read was how globalization became started. Throughout the Cold War countries such as Russia, China and India stayed somewhat isolated from the other countries of the world. Their workforces were separate than a worldwide workforce. By the end of the Cold War there were about 1.5 billion workers in the world not counting Russia, China, and India. However, by the time the Berlin wall came down we started to see these three countries become part of the world workforce. However, when this happened it created what some people may call a problem and others not. Adding these three countries into the workforce contributed another 1 ½ billion people into the workforce just from three countries alone. Another problem with this is that people in these countries are becoming very educated. Now, I shouldn’t say that is a bad thing because the world makes progress through educated people, but in terms of jobs and competitiveness it is a big problem. People in countries like India now have the opportunity to go far in education and they are grasping it like crazy. My grandpa described it as if they are hungry for education. These people have not always had the greatest education opportunities, but now that they have the chance to get an education they’re going for it and they don’t want to stop. I believe the book says that many people want to go further than a Master’s Degree because there is just that “hunger.” The problem is that as this part of the world becomes more educated they now have that competitive edge on us, which we are not used too. Unless we step us standards in America we are going to continue to see ourselves being heavily competed against.
This is a very hot issue and one that President Bush brought up at the State of the Union. He says we need to continue to stay educated and even came to 3M in Minnesota to promote education and attending college. I even attended a conference in St. Cloud a few months ago that discussed this very issue. It’s a big issue but one we don’t hear a lot about. However, we need to put more of our federal and state budgets into education. The first step to solving this problem is going to involve funding and the next step is us. I think this is a very important issue for us to look at especially because these are the more educated workers we will soon be competing against after we graduate.
If you're interested in looking more into this book, check out this link to it's page on
Amazon.com
Power Plants & Air Pollution-Thoughts
We are actually driving home right now and we’re passing through Big Lake and from this city I can see a large power plant that it is emitting huge amounts of gray smoke into the air. The amount of smoke that’s being emitted from this power plant is far beyond what we see coming from Sartell at International Paper. This is a large, thick cloud that just blankets the sky. Interestingly though at a certain point the smoke trails off and the sky returns. Out of sight out of mind right? Far from the truth. Imagine the contamination in the air even though we can’t the trail of smoke anymore. To help illustrate my point, I was able to grab my mom’s camera as we drove by the XCEL power plant and snap a picture of what I’m talking about. Now, power plants are a large scale source of pollution, but just imagine what happens when we combine all our smaller sources of air pollution such as car emissions. Also, we drove by the nuclear plant in Monticello on our way down to the twin cities on Saturday. The amount of contamination that was coming from that plant was far beyond the XCEL power plant. Larger, thicker, and whiter clouds of smoke took over a large area of the sky there as well, but remember that nuclear energy is cleaner than a power plant that runs by coal. Knowing the danger of nuclear power however, would this really be a safe alternative to the coal burning as pictured above?
Rebuttal To freddyfourfingers Entry
Firstly Id like to point out the fact that you just hid behind your draft and hoped nobody would contest it. By the way Id have put this in a comment if it werent for that, but I suppose this way it is easier for people to get a more educated viewpoint on the matter. After comparing the United States and Russia, I found that the United States emits well over double (almost triple) the amount of carbon dioxide that Russia does. Although the U.S. has around double the population of Russia it consumes well over double the amount of energy of Russia. (The previous information was from the EIA Country Analysis Breifs) To freddy-four-fingers, you as an American really should not complain one bit about air pollution unless you are talking about you own country's. Speaking of ozone depleting substances, according to
http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/china.shtml, the United States produces about 1/4 of the GLOBAL total of greenhouse gases. Just because Russia is a major producer of ODS's doesn't mean they are at fault for creating the demand for them. In addition, ECOMALL rated 146 countries by their place as protectors of the environment. Russia was ranked 33 (Ahead of the U.S. at 46). In response to the comments about nuclear waste, it is completely safe if stored properly. After studying in chemistry about this matter, we learned that the containers used to store the waste keep nearly all radioactivity contained. Additional curies of radioactivity are almost completely undetectable only feet away from the containers. Sure, Russia has had a bad past as far as nuclear energy accidents, but security has tightened down enormously to ensure nothing like the Chernobyl incident ever happens again. Now, any containment of nuclear waste is near flawless. Critics of the storage of nuclear waste are either uneducated or have been brainwashed by media's messages. Finally, Russia should not be viewed on negatively for environmental problems that the United States is also (and usually moreso) guilty of. That is not to say that we should stop trying to improve the environment, because I believe the contrary. However, Russia should not be singled out and we should look on environmental issues from a world perspective. After all, Russia has had a great impact on the world today, for example it has offered safe and peaceful solutions to Iran's ambitions about nuclear energy, and we cannot forget the aid the Soviet Union brought us in WW2. On an ending note- RUSSIA RULES!!!
The following link contains information from an interview with a man, Edward Trimnell, who wrote a book about the necessity of knowing more than one language. I feel this article is easy to relate to because as high school students many of us only take a foreign language class to get into the right college. However, the business markets and the people immigrating into the Untied States are becoming more and more diverse. This diversity is often complicated with the use of different languages, but if the American people became more educated in different languages the barrier standing between us could be broken. I think that by the time we graduate college the knowledge of a second language will be necessary to find success in the working world. With the use of the internet and the ability to ship products faster the various markets of the world are rapidly coming together. I found this interview to be extremely interesting and caused me to think more about continuing my foreign language studies.
http://www.transitionsabroad.com/publications/magazine/0505/edward_trimnell_on_language_immersion.shtml
How does Globalization Affect Us?
There have been so many times where I have heard someone say: "yeah but how does this affect me" or "how can I use this in real life" or just "who cares?" Personally, I think geography and what we are learning about globalization is really interesting, but it makes even a bigger impact for me when I can see where it will affect me. This site sums up a lot of the impacts that technology is making on the student and education. Test material and curriculum is changing from just basic memorization of facts and formulas to how we can apply ideas and concepts. Colleges and Universities are giving out more scholarships to students who are going into technical fields like engineering and computers. Many students will become more specialized. There is a greater need for qualified teachers and many students or younger teachers are being hired for the job because of their knowledge in technology. Technology fields continue to grow and this is definitely affecting us as students. To read about more changes in education through technology go to this link:
http://www.ofb.net/~lisa/education.html
The other day I was babysitting and the kids were watching this cartoon about this ship (literally think sails, masts, pirates, ok maybe not pirates) that was flying in space to this unknown planet or something. Anyway, I thought it was a little farfetched, until I saw this article. We were talking in class about how technology is a huge part of globalization, as well as transportation. Well this is definatly technology in trasportation. Picture a cross between the luxury of a cruise ship and the means of trasportation of an airplane (the air!). You get this thing that looks like a futuristic blimp on the outside, but inside it is like a hotel, complete with staterooms, restraunts, and possibly a casino. A man named Igor Pasternok came up with the plan and now many cruise companies are interested. Despite its looks, it is pretty aerodynamic and can go at about 170 mph. It can cross the U.S. in 18 hours. And this is just the beginning. It will be interesting to see how technology like this will evolve in the next several years. It is supposed to be ready by 2010, which isn't all that far away, once you think about it. Four years and you too could be flying in a shiny hotel across the U.S.
I know that the war on terrorism is controversial to say the least, but I think that it is partly because of the real reports, or lack thereof, of what is really happening. I mean, we never really hear about what progress we are making, or how the soldiers feel about the war, or even about how the Iraqi people, who we are helping, feel about what we are doing. We pretty much hear about how many people have died and we focus on that. When we read about other wars in the textbooks, World War II for example, we often hear about propaganda, and how the whole country came together to support their soldiers and their country. They made sacrifices and were grateful to do so for the good of the cause. We supported fighting against Hitler and the horrible things he did to so many people, but we don't care enough about the people who were under a dictator in Iraq. Why? I think that this is hard to do when we never hear about the good of the cause. I think the news is particularly biased, and it has turned from informative news, to just plain BAD news. (For example, how the drumline portrayed it :) ) Did you know that eleven million people have voted and a new Iraqi Constitution is in place? Or that we are helping open many hospitals and schools? Have you really thought about the significance of the thousands of al-Qaida terrorists that have been stopped? What about one of history's largest mass murderers put in prison? How is it that we get the impression that we are making no difference in Iraq and we are just wasting our time? Tell that to the people we are literally saving. From an evil dictator, from oppression, from death. I think it is time for us to rally behind our country with a little patriotism. Showing our support with a little more than a magnet on the back of your car. A major in the U.S. Army Reserves, Chuck Larson, says that "If we weren't fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq, we'd be fighting them in America." Maybe then we would start to care.
read more about the progress in Iraq at
http://www.midwestheroes.com/
I wanted to expand on "freddy four fingers" post about russia and the enviroment. For years russia has been terrible at dealing with nuclear waste. Much of this was due too the fact that everything was done in secrecy during the communist regism. Now Russia has again made headlines with the Idea of importing nuclear waste from western nations. They say that they will dispose of 20,000 tonnes of nuclear wast for 20 billion US dollars. Russia accounts for a majority of nuclear disasters in the world. Where the Russians want to "dispose" of the nuclear waste is already argueably the most nuclear polluted place in the world. Nuclear pollution will not stay in Russia, it will spread eventually via the atmosphere around the world. So we have to stop and ask ourselves if we want to give more nuclear waste to the country responsible for Chernobyl and of course Godzilla! An
France and India report first cases of Bird Flu
So this saturday, France has found it's first case of bird flu in a wild duck. On this very same day India has found a case of the bird flu in a few chickens that died from the virus. France is avidly trying to keep the flu from reaching thier 200,000+ chicken farms that raise 900 chickens, turkeys, and ducks.
Over in India, officials began the slaughter of thousands of chicken in a 3-kilo radius of the city Navapur. Later it was confirmed that 30,000 chickens had the virus. Deadly cases of the desease are also popping up around Indonesia and Germany.
To me this is pretty scary when "This likely means the virus is getting more ferocious," Apriyantono said. I just hope that soon they will be able to find a way to stop the spread of this terrible virus, and make sure that it doesnt become dangerous towards humans.
Here is the
article!!!!!!!
