just another Monday

So today was pretty average. Mr. Schick wanted us to go over our Veracross and make sure we were content with our grades and to sort out anything with him. Now Veracross wasn't working for about the first fifteen minutes of class so I just browsed other things in the meantime and talked to my foreign exchange student, Klaus. Klaus is from Uzbekistan, his father is German, which is how he got the name Klaus, and his mother a native Uzbek. He came to John Carroll to see what our beautiful school has to offer for his education. I'm pretty sure he's insistent on going. Might stick around for the next two or so years *wink*. Then after about that first twenty minutes we went over our homework which was the facts we did on our blog about a country of our choosing's people. After that class ended and it was just another Monday.                 

5 Wacky Facts about Russia's People

Starting off for fact number one is Russia's population. Oh my had it not changed in the slightest. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia's population has remained virtually the same, even decreasing. Currently their population stands at 142,257,519 people. This is less than the population of roughly 148.6 million people in 1991 (the year the USSR collapsed). I found this interesting because you would assume their population would grow after the collapse of the heavily in debt 1990's USSR. But it would appear that Russia is just trying to recover from the collapse and is having problems. Russia is a developed country though so it may just be falling to what other developed nations are experiencing. Going off of that we go onto fact number two. There are eleven births per one thousand of the population. But, there are thirteen and a half deaths per one thousand of the population. So, because of this the population is decreasing. But to quell this in a sense we have fact three. Immigration. Now, the immigration number isn't too high but still peaked my interest. From personal experience, I hear people trash on Russia and say it's a horrible nation, but they have a net migration of 1.7 per 1,000 people. It may not be a lot but people are at least interested in moving to this country and living there. Now onto fact number four, 74.4% of Russia's population is urban. This doesn't really connect to our lesson but I found it interesting either way because it has to do with one of our human geography questions, where are people distributed, and also because most of Russia is rural land and wilderness. Lastly, the age structure of Russia is interesting. There is a sharp decrease in the population in percentages with the age group of 15-24. While 17.12% of the population is 0-14, only 9.46%, but then nearly 50% of the population is 25-54 years old at 44.71%. It's interesting to me because you would think it be more gradually spread out but there are chunks and pieces and it might explain the population decrease. That is all, goodnight.

More Notes, yay

Alright so we took some more notes today on stuff like TFR (Total Fertility Rate). This rate is the number of children born per woman. For a population to remain the same this rate must be 2.1. The world fertility rate is 2.42, which is surprisingly low for all the times people talk about overpopulation. The US has a fertility rate of 2.01, yet our population is growing because of immigration, Nigeria with a sky-rocketing high 6.89, and Japan with a 1.4. The reason some countries, like Nigeria, have such high fertility rates may be because of A. children die young often so parents may want to have multiple children to atleast have some live on or B. In more traditional countries like India, families may want to carry on the family name so they may have 5 girls in a row and then finally have a boy. In places like Japan, the rate is low because most of the population is older and the younger people just aren't interested in having children. On the last note, Insular means to be proud of one's culture and not willing to leave their nation of origin no matter what.

Notes about Rates

Alright, back at it again at Krispy Kreme. The Crude Birth rate is the number of births per 1,000 people of a population. Crude Death rate is the number of deaths per 1,000 people of a population. Rate of Natural Increase (RNI) is produced by subtracting the number of deaths from the number of births. Which in the end gives you the annual growth rate which is shown in a percent for a certain country or region. Net Migration is the difference between people entering and leaving a country or region per year. An excess of people entering a country is net immigration and the excess of people leaving a country is net emigration. Some Examples being: US with a net immigration of 2.45 per 1,000 people, Canada net immigration of 5.65 per 1,000 people, and Mexico with a net emigration of -1.38 per 1,000 people.

Population and Settlement

Alright fellas so basically we got this bread today and by bread I of course mean notes. So, there are roughly 7.5 Billion people on planet Earth, Every year the population increases by 73 million people, 200,000 people per day (8,377 per hour, 149 per minute, 2.5 per second). Most of the population growth takes place in developing countries like those found in South and East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Life Expectancy is the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. The highest life expectancy in the world is 89 years in Monaco, the US ranks in at #42 at 79 years, and the lowest is Chad with 49 years. The key issues here are where the world's population is distributed, why the global population is increasing, why population growth varies from region to region, and why regions face health issues that may affect life expectancy and population growth.

Another Test

Alright so today was test day and I guess that pretty epic. Hopefully I did alright but I guess I'll just have to wait to find out. Anyway, we started off class by Mr. Schick reviewing a tiny bit and then the whole female population of the class breaking out into the iCarly theme song. Now that was pretty epic cause I've never heard more than three people sing it at once, but it was fairly entertaining either way. The test was fairly straightforward and I personally didn't have any problems with it. I didn't think it was too easy but it also wasn't extremely difficult. After I finished I turned it in and went back to my desk to mess around for next however so many minutes, I believe twenty minutes if I'm correct. Otherwise than the test that was basically the day. It was pretty smooth and didn't bring any stresses. Definitely a ten out of ten.

Test Review

So today we reviewed for the test we'll be having tomorrow and just going over the stuff we've been studying over the past week or so. There's not really much to say about it so I'm just gonna write my notes here to hit that one hundred fifty word goal minimum. So, if it's 7AM in Bel Air, Maryland then it will be 6AM in Chicago, Illinois. Earth has 24 time zones. Each is fifteen degrees of longitude (360 degrees divided by 15 to get 24). The sun rises in the East and sets in the West. The Prime Meridian is located at 0 degrees longitude and the International Date Line at 180 degrees longitude. The Prime Meridian passes through Greenwich, UK (Hence the name of Greenwich Mean Time for 0-15 degrees). All time zones converge on the North and South poles and whoever is there gets to decide what time it is. Map scale can be shown in three ways ratio, written scale, and graphic scale. Four types of map distortion are shape, distance, direction, and relative size. 2D models of the Earth are called maps and 3D ones are called globes. NOTES!

Cultural Differences

So today we had another beautiful open discussion about cultural differences in the world and even in groups within one place. For example we went over how Catholics and other faiths within Christianity handle things differently when it comes to mass. For example some faiths will not allow people who are not that religion or not religious at all to receive communion or go to church. While other faiths may allow them to do so. Traditionally with confession you would sit in a darkened booth with a priest on the other side of a screen listening to your confession. Sometimes now the booth has no screen at all or the booth is taken out of the equation altogether. Functionally it is all basically the same, but it has changed over the years. Another topic that we brushed over was the law system in the United States and Saudi Arabia. Here in the United States we have laws that are somewhat based on the commandments ,but there are so many other crimes and laws that we kind of stray away from that. While in Saudi Arabia the laws are strictly based on what is in the Quran. Another thing is that in Saudi Arabia when it comes to women they are very much more traditional. Women weren't allowed to drive until about a year ago. Women are expected to cover up their skin as much as possible. That is just what is traditionally expected in their religion. Here in the US we are quite the opposite, we have some interesting clothing to say the least. We just find it weird probably because we're not used to it. It says a lot about society, yet we live in one.

Culture and Globalization

So today in class we took some notes and learned some new stuff. We went over culture and globalization. Geographers study both definitions of culture; What people care about, What people take care of. Important cultural values derive from a group's language, religion, and ethnicity. Why their customary ideas, beliefs, and values produce a distinctive culture in a particular place. Then their is what people take care of. The elements such as production of material wealth including food, clothing, and shelter that humans need in order to survive and thrive. Then we have globalization. Globalization is the force or process that involves the entire world and results in making something in the worldwide scope. For example when a transnational company has factories in a country where it doesn't have a headquarters or a prime shareholder. Especially in the 2008 global recession. Which effected anything from home buyers in the US to salesclerks in Japan. Everyone was caught in a web of falling demand and lack of credit.

Review and Other Things

Today we basically reviewed everything that we had learned over the past week or so. But, more importantly we had an open discussion about tracking devices and other things that may violate our privacy. We went over the many advantages and disadvantages of these types of things. I personally don't believe in doing something like this, but, I could see the benefits of it in some ways. Another factor being that some people may have had an experience of want this done so that doesn't happen again. We also took some more notes on our new recent topic, culture. We didn't take a whole lot though. Just some basics of culture. Our notes being: Regions of Culture are the body of a customary belief, material traits, and social forms that constitutes the traditions of a group of people. Cultus is the origin word and it is the Latin word for to care for or to care about.

Types of Region

Today we talked about the three types of regions geographers identify. Formal region (uniform region or homogeneous region)- An area in which everyone shares in common one or more distinctive characteristics. For example, speaking a common language. Functional Region (nodal region)- An area organized around a node or focal point. For example, circulation of a newspaper in an area. Lastly Vernacular Region (perpetual region)- An area that people believe exists as part of their cultural identity. For example the Gold Coast in Florida. We also had a pop quiz which I did alright on. Nothing really special happened that day other than the bad memory of me teaching that stuck around like a bad hangover.

Today I taught

So today in class we went over some basic terms for the Earth and locations. But besides that boring topic I taught the class. It was really hectic and a complete train wreck. I started off with listing off the three basic ways locations are identified. Toponyms; name give to a place dependent on people, religious affiliation, physical features, and origins. Site; name given to a place dependent on physical character, climate, water, topography, soil, vegetarian, latitude, and elevation. Lastly, Situation; name given to a place dependent on its location relative to other places. A place is a specific point on Earth, and those are how these places are named. Of course, describing the features of a place is an essential building block for geographers to explain similarities, differences, and changes across Earth. Basically by the end of it everybody had a good laugh (at me) and we all learned that that is why each point on Earth is Unique.

Alexa

So basically we talked about corporations and how they are evil. Of course being politically woke I already knew these BIG FACTS. So, we talked about RiteAid first. There were a lot of opinions on this one. On one hand RiteAid can take your location and order a medicine you need; for example diabetes patients. But then we talked about smart home devices like Alexa and Google Home. If you think about it they're always listening, just waiting for their names to be said. All this data could just not be recorded but if it is then its most likely being stored somewhere and listened to for some kind of purpose. What's to dictate than any company has to follow their policy, even if it comes out then they can just deny it and pay off the feds. These are large corporations doing this to the common man. We need to stop these corporations from abusing the privacy of millions of people across the world. They need to clearly state the cons of their service instead of putting it hidden way back in their privacy policy/ terms and conditions. No longer shall the common man suffer to the greedy corporations of the world. A spectre haunts this world and it is the one that will eliminate this greed. Stay woke people.

Test Aftermath and Timezones

Alright so basically in class we went over the test which I totally aced and got a 97% on. I’m proud of myself for once. Then Mr. Schick have out maps with time zones marked. On these we had to set the capitals of certain countries that correspond with the centre of which tike zone they are in. Fun fact, Russia spans 11 times zones, meaning that the sun almost never sets. Also on the board of the cities we had to mark someone wrote the Chinese spelling of Beijing next to Beijing. So, I wrote the Russian spelling of Moscow (Москва) as well. I am currently trying to finish the timezone maps for homework as well so that should be fun. I’m actually typing this on my phone cause I just remembered that we had to type this in addition to the time zone maps. That’s about it and I’ll see you all next time on pointless human geography blogs tomorrow night.