Intro to Human Geography

In class today we watched Jeopardy.  Before class I had a health exam that I was very worried about but it went a lot better than I thought it was going to go.  I was going to bring in cans for extra credit but I completely forgot to until we were on our way to school so it was too late.  There is also an opportunity to get extra credit for the test after school if I went to the anxiety talk but I can't because I have practice after school.  This morning my mom made me eggs.  I was almost late because I forgot to make my lunch until right before we left my house.  I have never watched Jeopardy before but I really like it, it's entertaining and I could definitely learn a lot just from watching this show.  I don't watch a lot of shows that much anymore.  I can never find one that I like enough to get into.  I'm very picky with shows, if I don't like it within the first episode than that's it.

In todays class we took the test on the Guns, Germs, and Steal video.  I took three pages worth of notes and studied them all a lot.  I felt pretty confident before I took the test and I still do.  Whenever I take tests I count how many answers I'm not sure about and then after I turn it in I see what my score would be if I got those wrong.  I think I got a 22/26 which would be an 84%.  I think I could've done better but I did my best.  Mr. Schick put relaxing music on during the test too which I really liked actually.  I also tried not bubbling in the Scantron until I finished the whole test and I think that helped too because it forced me to check all my answers before I wrote them down and I did end up changing a couple.  I have an English quiz next period so I'm going to do some online studying on the website.  Later today I'm also reading at mass during Bible class which I'm nervous but also excited for.

In todays class finished the rest of the Guns, Germs and Steel video.  We didn't have much left so they didn't really talk about anything we hadn't already heard yet.  We talked a lot in class about how the lines of latitude played a part as well with the geographic location of countries. The Fertile Crescent spread out resources along it's lines of latitude all around the Earth.  That's how some of the same animals can survive in different countries than it's native one, because it's along the same line of latitude as it's native home.  Meaning the environment and climate for the most part will be the same and the living conditions are sustainable for the foreign animal to live.  We also discussed about the different native tribes that probably live all through out the Americas before Christopher Columbus came over.

  Me and Banks Clark at the Pow Wow-

In todays class we watched more of the Guns, Germs, and Steel.  We only have ten minutes left in the video.  Most of what we watched today had to do with animal domestication.  There are only fourteen domesticated animals in the world out of all 2 million species.  The fourteen domesticated animals are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, Bali cattle, Bactrian camels, Arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, and mithans.  None of these fourteen domesticated animals are not native to New Guinea.  The only animal New Guinea has are pigs.  Although they can gain meat from the pigs, they can't be used for much more. You can use their skin for warmth, they don't give milk, and you can't use their poop as fertilizer.  This goes back to no luck for New Guineas' geographic location.

In class today we continued watching more of the video Guns, Germs and Steel.  I learned that the first plant domestication for China was rice, for the Middle East was barely and wheat, for the Americas was corn, squash and beans, and for Africa was sorghum, millet and yams.  All of the farming these places did for their crops boosted them into civilization.  Even though Papau New Guinea had their crops too: sago and bananas, they weren't boosted into civilization like all those other places.  It's not that they hadn't started as long ago as them, their tribe has been around for 13,000 years but has not had the same outcome as all the other places.  The reason that Jared Diamond thinks is causing this has to do with the geographic location of each place.  Each place has different native crops that they live off of until they are developed enough to have other foods too.  Because the Papau New Guinians' crops and food require so much time and labor unlike most other, the