Matthew M

I was not in class today because of being sick. I did go to the Powwow on Saturday 1/11/2020.

Guns, Germs and Steel day 3. Ian Kuijt is an archaeologist.  He discovered the earliest sign of a community. The community was called Draa. It first emerged  about 11,500 years ago. It took Ian and his team 4 years to discover the community. Draa had the world's first granary- place to store grain/wheat. The Draa people collected wheat and barley. Today farming is called plant domestication. Places that developed their own farming are China- rice, Americas- corn, squash, and beef, Africa- sorghum, millet and yams. When farming excels in an area, a great nation followed it. new guinea people have been farming for 10,000 years. People who had the most productive crops became productive farmers.

Guns, Germs, and Steel continued. Jared sees people being inferior because of race as absurd. All great civilizations have three things in common. The three things are advance technology, large population and a well organized workforce. Having advance technology gives you a huge advantage in power and goods against your competitors. A large population is simply for multi-tasking. Multiple parts of the country working on different areas to help their country succeed. Having a well organized workforce is what helps the large population work so well. With this the people can get a month's work done in half the time. Pre-history is 13,000 years ago when we didn't record our history. The people then were all living about the same. People in Papua New Guinea who live in the rain forest are still hunters-gatherers. There are people in the Brazilian rain forest who are still hunter-gatherers as well. Wild sago is food the new Guinean people get out of a sago tree. They chop the tree d...

1st blog of the new year. It's 1/7/2020 and it's been three weeks since I had to type a blog. Today in class we saw our scores for the midterms. We also talked about the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel". The author is Jared Diamond. The book was published in March 1977. Jared Diamond is a professor at UCLA in Los Angeles. He's a Biologists which is the study of human physiology. His real passion is to study birds. The book explains why Eurasian and North African civilizations have survived and conquered other areas. One factor of this is Geographic luck. This is when you are born into a well-developed area that is better than other areas. The book is also showing why white supremacy is wrong. Jared's journey started in Papua New Guinea. It's located above Australia on an island that looks like a Dino. Why on the island Jared was presented a question by man named Yali. His questions was "Why you white men have so much cargo, and we New Guineans have so ...

Today we wrote the essay for our midterm. My essay could've been better in some areas. I could've done a better intro for the essay. I also could've extended the paragraph on stage 5, unfortunately I didn't have enough time to add more. My conclusion should've been better too. The only reason I couldn't add onto stage 5 was because I took so much time thinking about how to write the conclusion. I've always had trouble with writing the conclusion, I feel like there's nothing else that needs to be said so I have a blank mind. Here's how my essay should've gone. In the world every country will go through a series of stages. They can delay what happens, but they can’t avoid it. The series of stages have been mapped out for us on the demographic transition. There are 4 or maybe 5 stages every country will go through. Each one is different in its own way. The first stage is the beginning for the countries. This is before the industrial revolution, bu...

Stage 1: Before industrial revolution. Started as hunters and gatherers. High birth rate, death rate, and low NIR/population. Birth rate slightly higher than the death rate, slow population increase. No countries in this stage currently. All countries are in at least stage 2. Stage 2: Started from the industrial revolution. England was first to do it then U.S. birth rate remains high while death rate drops. Population/NIR rises higher than the birth rate. High production means more money, which leads to more medicine/bigger houses for kids. Stage 3: Lower birth rate, death rate remains, population/NIR peaks then drops. Women have less children because they enter the workforce. Population falls greatly. Birth rate still higher than death rate, population slowly increases. people live in cities, bad idea to have large families. Colonial Mexico experienced the stage. Stage 4: Slow time for the country. Birth rate barely higher than death rate, population rises very slowly. Birth rate w...

Option C: Consider our studies of fertility (which include data on CBR and TFR) and mortality (CDR, Infant Mortality Rate, Life Expectancy, and Rate of Natural Increase). Describe the four (or five) stages of the Demographic Transition, beginning with the Industrial Revolution, proceeding to the present day, and projecting into the future. Be sure to discuss individual countries as you describe the different stages. In the world every country will go through a series of stages. They can delay what happens, but they can’t avoid it. The series of stages have been mapped out for us on the demographic transition. There are 4 or maybe 5 stages every country will go through. Each one is different in its own way. The first stage is the beginning for the countries. This is before the industrial revolution, but during the time when people were still hunters and gatherers. They would go out and hunt any food they could find. The country will have a high birth rate, high death rate, and a l...

We took a quiz today for class. I believe I did well on it. I got questions right that others got wrong. For example one of the questions  we had was, Who said this.... in a video? My main choices was the Australian guy or Kim with the PHD. I choose Kim because she has a PHD and that's the only reason I had. The picture question was easy for the demographic transition. I finished that part easily, it's pretty simple. I was expecting a question about stage 5 on the quiz. Since no one has reached it yet, it could have been a trick question or extra credit. It would have been nice to get a couple of extra points. We should do a jeopardy for extra credit,

Today we watched another video on demographic transition. We also sketched it into out notebooks. One thing I learned is that stage 5 really doesn't exist. It's just a theory of what will happen to the country. We have plenty of countries that have made it to the 4th stage but they haven't moved past it yet. There's a possibility it may happen in my lifetime. Right now the country is in stage 4, we are having less children than the previous stages we've been in. I believe stage 5 leads into a baby boom. Stage 1 starts off with a high birth rate and a high death rate, but a low population/NIR. If there is a baby boom in stage 5, it will give the demographic transition what it needs to be in stage 1. I don't know how the population will be low though. The very idea of stage 5 is crazy all by itself. It could lead to the fall of a country or the rise to newfound power. Whether it's good or bad, it will definitely change the way we see countries. if it leads to ...

Today we reviewed information on demographic transition. We also talked about the different stages of the country or area in each demographic transition. In stage 1 the country or people are hunters and gatherers. They go out and hunt their food and are most likely nomads, always traveling. Stage 2 has the industrial revolution. In this stage the country or area has high production rate of goods which leads to more money for the people. This directly effects the transition into stage 3. Since people are starting to have more money to buy things in stage 2, people can now buy better medicine.  In stage 3 medicine is abundant and the NIR is at an all time high. Many people are living longer and now can cure sickness. In stage 4 the NIR drops to complete zero. This is because women are now more focused on joining the workforce instead of staying home and having kids while doing house chores.

The demographic transition is a process of change in a society's population from high crude birth and death rates and low rate of natural increase to a condition of low crude birth and death rates, low rate of natural increase, and higher total population. There are 5 stages. Stage 1 (Low growth) has very high CBR, very high CDR and very low NIR. Most of human history was spent in stage 1 of the demographic transition, but today no country remains in stage 1. Every nation has moved on to at least stage 2 of the demographic transition, and, with that transition, has experienced profound changes in population. For Stage 1 humans relied on hunting and gathering food. If food was abundant then the population will increase. If food was scarce, then the population will decrease, duh. Stage 2 (High Growth) has high CBR, rapidly declining CDR and very high NIR. Rapidly declining death rates and very high birth rates produce very high natural increase. Europe and North America entered...

Today we took a test. I missed last class due to an appointment. I missed notes on three of the major religions. I had to cram some information for ten minutes before the test. I already know I got several questions wrong on the test. Having 10 mins to learn new information is not easy. I guessed on all Hindu, Buddhist and Judaism questions. I could tell the test wasn't going to go well when I saw it. I know I got the location and the adherents wrong for the three populations. The test would've been easier if I was here for the class. I was out for most of the day and then came home to sleep. After that I  went to practice and then came home to eat dinner and sleep. Maybe I could've stayed up a little later to study the slideshow.

I wasn't in class today because I had an eye appointment.

Today we talked about 5 major religions. Christianity is the biggest religion in the world. There are 2.2 billion people who are Christians, that's around 30% of the population. We call them Christians. They are mostly located in Europe, Americas, and Southern Africa. The denominations of Christianity are Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestants. Protestants include Lutherans, Methodists, Baptist, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and many more. The founder of Christianity is Jesus Christ, but the religion's origin is from Abrahamic origin. The holy book is The Bible which includes the old and new testaments. The Christianity beliefs are Jesus is both human and divine- Son of God, He led a virtuous life, He was crucified, died, Buried, Resurrected, and ascended into Heaven where he reigns with God the Father. The clergy of Christianity is the Pope who is head of the Catholic Church, Priests are local authorities. The second largest religion is Islam. I...

Russia is the largest territory in the world. Niger is 1/16th the size of Russia. Niger has the same population as Russia. Niger is growing faster than Russia is. Niger has a higher birth rate than Russia. There are on average 5 kids born per woman. I don't know how many kids are born per woman in Russia, but it is lower than Niger. The population is set up with men on the left, women on the right. It ranges from side to side. It starts ages 0-4, pre-productive, reproductive, and post- reproductive. Each section is for the people's ability to reproduce. The pre-industrial is just growing crops in the country. Industrial includes factories, increase in production and demand.

Today we had a 30-point quiz. I was one of the first people to finish. It was actually pretty easy, there was only about 3 questions that I had troubled with. The population pyramid was probably the hardest part of the test. I didn't remember the countries the pyramids were showing, but I believe I got the right answers. Thankfully we had some time to study before the test. There were several countries that I couldn't answer questions about, but since I did a quick cram session, I believe I answered correctly. I also got to compare notes with my classmates. They had notes that I was missing from the videos we watched and the power point we reviewed. A couple of questions I didn't even know we were going to be asked on. But luckily, we compared notes, and I was prepared for the test. I think I got an A or B on the test.

The test is Monday the 18th. I have all the notes I need to study. The standard TFR is 2.1. Monaco has the highest life expectancy. Canada and the United States have high immigration rates. It mostly comes from immigrants that are leaving Mexico. The reason for people leaving Mexico is because of its bad economy. Now American companies are starting to build factories in Mexico to improve their economy. Recently the United States have increased border control to reduce the rate of immigration. the world immigration rate is 0. Also, the United States has a low TFR, but immigration keeps the population rising. Push forces include war, pollution, religious persecution, unemployment. Pull forces include jobs, religious freedom, peace. Developing countries have a high birth rate. The highest birth rate is 6.8 children born per women. The lowest is 1 child born per women. The reason for this is because they focus more on gaining money through trading of resources, instead of the public heal...

I believe I earned myself a 95%. My slide wasn't as big as the other groups but I did identify a major problem and thoroughly explained it. I could've used a different format instead of using  bullet points. While I did explain the nation problem, it could have been better. My group grade overall was a 90%. Everyone in my group, including myself, used bullet points for our slides. We had about 3-4 bullet points and that was not good for us. Each slide had to take up at least 2 mins per person. I believe only one of us reached the 1 min mark. The other groups had entire paragraphs for they're slides, which did help them reach 2 mins. The only thing they didn't do better than us was explaining the problem for each slide. My group can state the problem, explain it, and figure out a way to solve it. Other groups had to take most of their time to think about a solution for their problem.

We presented our group projects to the class today. My group had the large country of Japan. For the project we had to identify major problems in the country. For example debt, crime, over-population, decreasing population or international issues. I researched Japan's total fertility rate. Japan had a total fertility rate of 1.42. Compared to other large countries, that's actually really low. Most developed countries has a TFR over 2.1. A country needs a TFR of 2.1 or higher to increase in population. Since Japan has a TFR lower than 2.1, they're population is going to decline. The only reason Japan seems highly populated now is because of how many elders they have. Japan has many elders that are living long lives, they take up nearly half the population. But there's a problem that comes with so many elders. The reason the TFR is 2.1 is for the two kids to replace the two parents in the population when they die. But since they have a low TFR, there won't be enough k...

Today we talked about questions that will be on our midterm test coming in six weeks. We reviewed 37 questions that will be used. That's basically a quarter of the whole test. Apparently the test is about 90 questions multiple choice, and a couple of essays. We have approximately six weeks to learn new information and remember information we already learned. From now on I'm going to write my notes in my blog so I can always use them. Monaco has the highest life expectancy in the world. Sub-Saharan countries have a very high birthrate. Mainly countries are developing have a higher birth rate. Those countries haven't experienced their own industrial revolution that would increases their profits. So they're main focus is to find a way to get more money, instead of acquiring health care. Once the countries are developed, they'll start to focus on the countries and the people's health.