Week 2: Daily: January 31st

You accidentally discover an invention that can immediately help millions of people; but only if you act immediately. On the other hand, if you just wait three months, you can secure a patent and get rich. Which do you choose and why?

Answer:

If I somehow discovered something that would help the world immediately but could make me rich in a little while later, I think I would wait and get a patent on my idea. The idea will still help people just as much as it would if it would immediately. If I got a patent on it, that means I would have more money, which could mean spending more with that discovery of mine. If I discovered a cure to a disease or a new language, I would wait and get a patent on it because you never know what goes through people’s heads, even if it does not seem logical, they will do it. If it means fame and fortune, humans will do anything for it. Without a patent, your ideas are open to anyone you allow into your life. With a seal on your side of the deal, you can now help the people in need or anything else without worrying if someone will take your ideas away from you and use them for their own benefit. To me, it is just as important to be securing with things as it is to help people or things in need. To me, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Week 1: Daily: January 27th

Will a "hypertext" world make us more accepting of cyclic history?
Answer:

No, I do not think a "hypertext" world will make us more accepting of cyclic history. Cyclic history method is that basically, history repeats itself and continues to repeat. Hypertext is the information displayed on a computer or any other technological device. I don’t believe that electronics can enforce us to take in the idea that history repeats itself. Electronics can help us understand why this can be believed. It can show us ways that this can be seen to be true in some people’s eyes. Internet or anything else cannot make a difference in whether or not we accept cyclic history. If someone believes in cyclic history, it is because they actually truly have seen evidence of it and can debate that it is true. Hypertext will be able to give us easier ways to show the information of cyclic history. Using hypertext, you can find information quickly and you can trust it for the most part. It can make it easier to follow and accept cyclic history, but I do not believe that it can fully change the way we think. The hypertext world can help to back up these believes of the person who accepts cyclic history, but it does not make people accept it more.

Week 1: Daily: January 26th

Don't our traditional forms of information communication, notably "the book" and especially "the textbook" contribute to our belief in linear history?


Yes, our old ways of learning and communicating do actually contribute to our belief in linear history. In the traditional way of learning, we used actual books, paper, and textbooks. Now adays, we are capable to use the internet to find anything we want, anywhere in time. Using linear history, we just see the history of one point of time to another point in time. This lets people see what happened in a certain era of the past and become aware of what it was like to live in that time. An example of linear history is like a timeline. You can only see the period of time shown on that timeline, but you get all of the information from this very line. At times, this method of researching a topic can be very quick. With linear history, you can look at it from the past into the future or present day. It's easy to see improvements in someone's lifetime or a country's history in this way. At others, it is easily found in more detail in other ways.Using linear history though, you can easily pinpoint information about that time period. I believe that our traditional forms of information communication, such as the book and the textbook contribute a great amount to our belief in linear history.

Week 1: Daily: January 25th

Is modern life "always" better than it is in the past?

 To me, modern life is not always better than the way things were in the past. Many things that happen in the past were great times, but we had to move on. A lot of people say that they liked their lives better when they were younger, which it is usually always easier when you are little. In other times, when it comes to politics or economy, the past could have been much better. Since we are just getting over a recession now, before that recession we had a time of growth and wealth in our world. People were wealthier and had more money. During and after the recession, people didn’t want to spend their money because they didn’t know whether or not they would need it after they would possibly get laid off. In politics, presidents have been shot and killed. Many of these presidents that were assassinated were liked by many people and had full lives ahead of them. They could’ve been doing very well in their presidency and helping our countries out with the economy or other things. Then they were gone. So I believe the response to this question is no, modern life is not always better than the past. Some people even think the other way around.

Week 1: Daily: January 24th

Does history progess?

In many ways, I believe history progresses. There is always something better coming or something more advanced.  In the example, the elephant is “better” than the mammoth. With history, it always starts out with something simpler than what comes next.  History began simpler people, plants, animals, and just about everything else in the world than what it is now. We are always moving forward in our world and are continually advancing. It shows when we look back into history. We have now inventions and more technology now than when Ben Franklin discovered electricity. We have even more intelligent people in the world than when Einstein was around and living. Even our bodies and living things are moving forward, which affects our history. Our bodies have gone through and been prone to more diseases and seen illnesses. It’s happening everywhere on the planet, too. At the beginning of time, our civilizations weren’t as big as they are now at. Everything is “bigger and better”. Everything has changed so much since the start of our world. The advances and progress we are making shows throughout time and whether it is one thousand years before 2011 or one thousand years after, history will always progress.

Exam Question #12

That Gap minder map shows us that the US spends the most on health care but we are the ones the live the least amount of time. This shows us that no matter how much we pay of health care, the health of our citizens won't change.

Exam Question #9

France on Terrorism

France is willing to fight the terrorist because they said there is no other way we could stop them. They are determined the be allies on the fight against terrorism because we all need to stop them.

Exam Question #7

1. A food hub is a centrally located facility with a business management structure facilitating the aggregation, storage, processing, distribution, and/or marketing of locally/regionally produced food products.
2. To find USDA approved foods, you would have to research where they were grown and made.
3. To JC Cafeteria, We should start getting our food from locally grown and operated farms. We could go to the Bel Air Farmer's Market to get great fruits and vegetables. There are many other markets we could get many other varieties of food.

Exam Question #6

1. Climate change is caused by human activities rising and the atmosphere cannot keep up with the quick and sudden changes.
2. Human activities contribute to climate change a lot because humans are polluting more and more each day. the industries we build also contribute to it because they give off pollution.
3. Yes, the climate is warming form all the gases in the air. It has increased about 0.74 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century
4. If the global warming is real, why are we getting snowstorms? The global warming is allowing the weather patterns to hit new extremes so that is why we are getting snowstorms.

Exam Question #4

There are so many names for Soda Pop in New Mexico because they are one of the newer states and they have a very diverse population. They have immigrants from Mexico, Americans, and even some Traditional Indians living there. There are many different people speaking different languages so they have different translations of "soda pop" or "coke" or anything else.

Exam Question #3

The U.S. city of Washington D.C. is the most unfriendly city.
http://dc.koreatimes.com/article/639588

Exam Question #2

Using Google Maps Street View
1. The car is blue.
2. The pictures were taken at 2:20
3. St. Paul's Chapel
4.

Exam Question #1

The sudden dip in the map shows that less people came to the United States for any reason whatsoever. The dip in the graph was probably from people from different countries stopped coming to our country when the 9/11 terrorist attack happened.Statistics like this help us to graph out history because we can see what events effect things that go on in our world around us. In class, we discussed how the happened to the U.S. and the oil industry while the prices went down and came back up from the oil spills.

Language and Experience Project

Gianna Langrehr

Mr. Wojo

Human Geography

January 4, 2011

Language and Experience Project

            I will be interviewing my family friend who is named Fabian Murillo. He is originally from Bolivia, but moved here to Maryland when he was a younger child. I talked to him about what it was like to transfer from a life in Bolivia to a life here in the United States.

GL: How did you begin to learn the new challenges of the English language and the way we speak?

FM: Although it was very hard, I eased into the language pretty well. I was at a young age when we moved so I was still learning the Spanish language. I just was around people who spoke English all the time. It was either learn English or not understand what was going on. Even though I still speak a lot of Spanish, English has become semi-easy for me.

GL: What was the hardest part of learning English compared to learning Spanish?

FM: I would have to say the hardest part of learning English would be the lingo that people use. I could not really understand what some of the people were saying because they used terms I didn’t know. Another hard part was talking to people I didn’t know. People are hard to talk to when you do not understand them, they get upset at you. It isn’t your fault that you don’t know the language yet.

GL: How has it benefited you to learn English?

FM: By learning English, it allows me to interact with people. It lets me speak to people who speak English or people that speak Spanish. Later on in my life, I will be able to say that I speak two languages so I could get a very good job working with people who speak other languages.

GL: Do you still speak Spanish at home with your family and close friends?

FM: Yes, I do speak Spanish with my family and friends at home. It just is second nature for us to speak it.

GL: Why?

FM: We still Spanish because it feels like you are truly home. When you grow up speaking in one language and then switch over to another language, it feels good to speak your old language. It makes me feel like I am back in Bolivia with my huge family and all my old friends there.

GL:  Why did your family decide to send you to school in the United States and move here?

FM: My family decided to move to America because we were struggling in Bolivia and my parents wanted our family to have good lives. We had a few distant family member in Maryland so we decided

GL: What is the difference between going to a school in Bolivia and going to a school in the United States?

FM: School here is very different compared to school in Bolivia. Here, there is so much more technology use. In Bolivia, I didn’t have a laptop, iPod, or cell phone. Now, all of my new friends have introduced me to it. Bolivia isn’t as up to date with all the technology as the United States, but I have kept my family back home informed with it. They even have Skypes because I told them about them!

GL: How did you get used to speaking English when before you always spoke Spanish?

FM: I got into the swing of speaking English all the time when I started school. I didn’t want to be known as the kid who didn’t know the language, so I just learned from practice and listening to people talk. It really helped when I watched television. It would speak things and type them on the screen. So basically, I learned English with the help of my friends and surroundings.

GL: What is school like for you now?

FM: School is challenging, but I have been getting much better at it. It is a bit of an adjust for going from Bolivia to here, but I believe that I have shifted very well. I know English is a difficult language to learn and I didn’t learn it overnight, that’s for sure.

GL: What is the biggest difference between speaking in Bolivia and speaking in the United States?

FM: In my hometown, we didn’t really use all of the figures of speech that are used here in the United States. There are many more words that have two different meanings which are harder to learn. The figures of speech are mainly the biggest difference because there are many more here than there are in Bolivia.  

GL: Well, thank you for allowing me to interview you.

FM: You’re welcome.

My Days in Dominican Republic

Dear Diary,

     This is very different. Living in the Dominican Republic with my host, Jessina, is completely diverse from what it is like living back home. You never know what is out in the world until you go and explore it. There is 3.1 times greater chance of dying in infancy here, since they spend 94.36% less money on health care here. I have been staying with Jessina and her family, though. they live in a pretty good neighborhood compared to some other places. There are tons of very bad places in the Dominican.  It really has me thinking and reflecting on my home when I am here. I makes me realize that no matter how bad it gets, there is always something out there that is even worse. If people really sit down and think about what goes on in the Dominican Republic, they would be so much more grateful for their lives. When people complain about not getting a bonus that year, there are people down in the Dominican that make 82.11% less money than us. It seems like you can't live like that but they have to or they do not live at all. School is even harder. They can't afford good education so what they can get with the money they have is what they have to deal with. Some schools only have about 20 kids in their entire school. In John Carroll, there is over a hundred kids in our grade alone. I recently participated in Duarte's Day with Jessina. It is the celebration of the founding father of the Dominican Republic. One breakfast dish is eggs and mangu, a dish the Dominican shares with Cuba and Puerto Rico. If America lived a couple days in the life of a Dominican, we would all change our outlook on life. Now here are some pictures of our experiences in my visit.

From, Gianna

<This is actually a rare occurrence to see children in the poorer areas using computers. Some of the richer areas have computers but not all the time. these children are really lucky. This was the school where Jessina and I studied. 

Here you see some of the girls who probably are from a very traditional family who still stick to their religion and beliefs, which could be why they are dressed like this. They are some of Jessina's friends. >

 < Here there are some workers taking out a tree from the ground. These workers look very young and this is probably because their families couldn't support them in school so they were sadly forced to drop out and go to work.

Sources:

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/DO 

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.wikipedia.org/

http://www.flickr.com/