We Presented Today.

In Human Geo today there were only two groups (mine being one of them) that had to present our ISIS project still. Luke's group volunteered to go first. Then it was me and Lauren's turn. We presented and Lauren told her jokes, and we finished early so they could ask questions. Luckily there weren't too many and she unplugged the laptop and shut the powerpoint off before we could get attacked with questions like Robby's group was. We also couldn't say the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi's name, and Mr. Schick took away my coffee until I said it kind of correctly. Then we finished taking notes on the 5 major religions. Today we wrote down facts about Judaism, and here they are:

• number of adherents: 14-18 million (ninth) 
• call them: Jews 
• geographic location: Israel 
• founder: Abraham 
• holy book: Talmud, Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament)     
• beliefs: ethical monotheism- God is one, and concerned with actions of humankind; Ten Commandments, 13 Principles of Faith 

Presenting the ISIS Projects

Today in Human Geo we all presented our projects on solutions to ISIS. Well not all of us- Lauren and I, and one other group didn't get to go, and one group like barely finished in time for questions. Basically, we all got papers for "evaluation" of each group, and we had to write the names of the people in the group, and we had to grade them on their presentation, research, answers to the questions they were asked, and how good their plan was. We gave them a letter grade for each of these things, and then an overall letter grade on the project. There was also a spot to write extra notes if we needed to. All the groups had really cool ideas and really nice presentations, even though Robby's group got roasted so much. I think this project was pretty cool, and yikes we are going to have to present after Thanksgiving Break because we don't have Human Geography tomorrow.

Finishing Up the "Solving the World's Problems Including ISIS" Project

In Human Geo today we got an extra day to do out group/partner project on ways or possible solutions to ISIS. Lauren and I had gotten pretty far already, but we touched up a few things, and came up with a few more ideas:

• give the Syrian Army materials they need, so they can become stronger and have a better chance at fighting ISIS 
• Kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of ISIS) 
• keep the leader hostage until ISIS will do something for us or surrender 
• threaten them 
• stronger drone assassinations 

Honestly, there isn't any real solution to this problem. ISIS is everywhere, it's near impossible to locate all of them- they are spreading everywhere, and hiding and blending in with other groups and other cultures. There's no exact way to completely destroy them, if we went to war, they would either win or start right back up again if we won. We need to get rid of as many members as we can however, and maybe slowly, but sometime in the future we can take down ISIS for good.


Bibliography:

www.theweek.co.uk

www.wsj.com

www.newsweek.com

www.theatlantic.com

www.foxnews.com

www.businessinsider.com.au

ISIS- Solutions??

Today in Human Geo we had to get into groups and think of possible solutions to ISIS, or ways we can stop them. Lauren and I are working together, and while we don't have it all put together yet to present it, we do have a lot of information, so here it is:

Who is ISIS?

• a group that began in 2004 as al Qaeda in Iraq, before rebranding as ISIS two years later. 
• It was an ally of -- and had similarities with -- Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda: both were radical anti-Western militant groups devoted to establishing an independent Islamic state in the region
• ISIS -- unlike al Qaeda, which disowned the group in early 2014 -- has proven to be more brutal and more effective at controlling territory it has seized. 
• Is in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Islamist militant group that has seized a chunk of land stretching from northern Syria to central Iraq (referred to as Islamic State by many) 


ISIS Agenda?

• (ISIS) have begun destroying 2000 year old Syrian statues in the ancient city of Palmyra and are claiming to have rigged the ancient ruins with explosives 
• They destroyed several sites across Iraq, includes the destruction and looting of Mosel Museum, the destruction of the 3000 year old Assyrian city of Nimrud and the bulldozing of the 2000 year old fortress city of Hatra. 
• "They don't care what it's called, they are just following their ideology and that means getting rid of churches and minorities," said MEMRI Exec. Director Steven Stalinsky. "It is the Islamic State, and there's no room for anyone else. "This has been going on for some time, a systematic campaign to rid the region of any vestiges of Christianity." 
• They terrorize everyone including many Islamists and Muslims that don’t follow what they do. 
Many members have posted to social media what they are doing, for example: ISIS members in the heart of Iraq's once-thriving Assyrian Christian community of Nineveh, destroying symbols the Islamist terror group considers polytheistic and idolatrous. The images show the men removing crosses from atop churches and replacing them with the black ISIS banner, destroying crosses at other locations such as atop doorways and gravestones, and destroying icons and statues inside and outside churches
• They are moving out from Syria and Iraq and are finding more places to terrorize
• 

Ways to Try and Stop ISIS? 

• increase size of US force 
• use bombs or increase the power of the airstrikes 
• work with Syria and Iraq (specifically the Free Syrian Army, we can try and make allies) 
• get as many refugees over here or somewhere else, so we can try and isolate ISIS 
• try and topple their power structure by attacking their leaders or structure of "government" (how many other groups have collapsed) 
• get everyone to agree on something (either with the refugees, get everyone to see that we can’t just sit back and do nothing)

Specific Groups in Danger 

• The Yazidis 
• Iraqi Christians
• Shiites

SaveTheKids (SaveSyria'sKids)

In Human Geo today, I came in to find my desk turned around and I was congratulated on turning my back against everyone? Something like that. Anyways, we watched a really sad and deep video today. It was about a little girl, maybe 9, who seemingly had a good and innocent life, until there started to be a lot of violence, bombs, gunshots and everything. She and her mom actually had to leave their dad behind, and they got sick, lived as refugees, and in the end, were suffering from so much pain, post-traumatic stress, and the loss of everything they had. I loved the way the video was put together because it showed everything almost like she was holding the camera, so you saw her and what was going on around her. Each part was only shown for like 2 or 3 seconds, so we re-watched it and analyzed each part and the hints it left throughout the video, and the symbolism at the beginning and end with the birthday cake was so sad but had a great meaning. The actors didn't look like your regular Syrian Refugees, which in a way represented how it could happen to anybody. We also had a really great discussion about the whole refugees coming over thing, and it's a very complex concept, and I hope we are able to come up with a solution to this one day. (Oh and also Matt got compared to a terrorist because he kind of looked like him, he even said the terrorist looked like his family O.O)

Paris (and Mr.Schick is finally back)

In Human Geo today Mr. Schick was back from Salt Lake City ( I think that's what he said). We also talked about the Paris tragedy. On Friday, there were suicide bombings, threats, and terrorists attacks on Paris. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks. The number of people that died was well over 120. Many people were injured too. The attacks happened in a church, a concert, and a soccer game. I was actually watching the news and it was scary because there was a video of the game and in the background you could hear the bombs go off. Everyone in Paris was in a panic and it's terrible, it's almost like their 9/11. I also feel bad for all the Muslims who are getting "blamed" for this. Yes, ISIS is mostly/all Muslim but not all Muslims are ISIS. They even interviewed a few Muslims who said they have lived in Paris for forever, and are just as affected as everyone else. Luckily, everyone there seems to be really loving. The president of Paris closed the borders and took away the right to reasonable searches and seizures. I'm praying for everyone affected by this, and I hope we can find at least SOMETHING to do about ISIS, and I hope everyone recovers as well and as fast as possible too.

Religion and Babies TED Talk

Today in Human Geo Mr. Schick wasn't here, so we had to go to room 204 and do the work on Veracross, which was watch a video called the "Religion and Babies TED" talk. It was actually really interesting, bringing up how in different countries there are different amounts of babies per women and how some may think that's because of the different religions in all those countries. It doesn't, however. There were a few charts in the video that had some information on them. The first one, which was shown as the speaker was talking about Qatari, was titled Total Fertility Rate Per Woman said "the most important factors are as follows: increased age at first marriage, increased educational level of Qatari women, and more women integrated into the work force." The speaker also talked about how the number of babies per women decrease:

1. children survive 
2. many children are not needed for work
3. women get education and join the labor force 
4. family planning is accessable 

The less amount of children per woman will help with the population of the world greatly, and it will help even more if less people in poverty have less children- they can't afford to, they shouldn't need to have as many kids as they do just so they can live where they are. We've reached peak child, and the world population will probably reach to 10 billion or more. Religion has nothing to do with how many children per woman, the areas where the women live, and what they have to do to keep themselves where they are is. 

I also took the Sporcle quiz on the Veracross post and I didn't do so well, I got a 9/20. It's weird because most of the stuff you feel like you've heard it before or that it would be in a different book than it is. It was weird seeing some stuff I never thought the Bible said and stuff I never thought the Quran would say, because I never thought they were so similar. 

I Was Sick Today ://

Today I wasn't in Human Geo because I came down with a cold that is going around/caught from my sister. I will hopefully get all the notes I missed from Lauren, and I hope I can come back tomorrow after being out for two days. I also took the survey you sent out to us. And I don't know what else to write so I'm going to say au revoir now :)

Learning Stuff About 2/5 Different Religions

In Human Geo today we started a new Unit, and it's on religions. (Kinda controversial but still interesting to talk about.) The first religion we took notes on is Christianity, and here's a few facts we learned/went over:

• number of adherents: around 2.2 billion (largest in the world) 
• call them: Christians 
• geographic location: Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa
• denominations: Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Protestants (Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, many more) 
• founder: Jesus Christ (its' Abrahamic in origin) 
• holy book: The Bible , especially the New Testament 
• beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine- the Son of God, he led a virtuous life, he was crucified, died, and was buried, and resurrected; he ascended into heaven where he reigns with God the Father 
• clergy: the Pope is head of the church, priests are local authorities 

The next religion we talked about/took notes on was Islam: 

• number of adherents: 1.5 billion (second largest) 
• call them: Muslims 
• geographic location: Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa
• denominations: Sunnis (75-90%), Shiites (10-20%) 
• founder: Muhammad (570-632) 
• holy book: Qur'an 
• beliefs: monotheistic, Abrahamic 
• Five Pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage) 
• Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God) and observing Islamic law

Let the Fiesta Begin

So today in Human Geography, Mr. Schick didn't show up for the first little bit of class. There was a lot of stuff that happened during the fifteen minutes he wasn't here. It was a fiesta and there was a lot of talking and hot pockets and chips & salsa  and animal crackers and talking about how Metropolitan was pretty much the same as Neapolitan because they both sounded the same. We also all got an extra 3 or 4 points because one of the questions, number 16, he got the answer wrong. Then we went over the test. I got an 83 (I got 5 questions wrong oh my). But it's better than a C and I'm glad we got the extra credit too. I'm really excited because it's Friday too. And I don't have too much else to talk about so I want to say @ Mr. Schick that I hope you have a good weekend and get less stressed out :)

Test Today

In Human Geo today we took the test on the NOVA- World in Balance, People Paradox video. I don't think I did as bad as I did on the last test, and I feel like I did pretty okay but I guess we will have to see. I finished last and that's okay because I was checking my answers, I get so messed up on tests- I make myself really nervous about it because I always think I got the answer wrong even when I know for sure I didn't. There were a few questions I was a little confused on and had to guess, but hopefully, hOPEfully I got them right. Also thank you for not completely crushing my soul with this test because that's what happened with the last one. I hope I can also get an A this quarter because that would be really really really great.

Test Tomorrowww :)))

Today in Human Geo we went over a lot of our notes because we are having a test tomorrow. Everyone (well almost everyone, I got asked to ask) asked a question to the class and we would say the answer out loud on the count of three, and pRAISE because the test is going to be a scantron. I think I still have to review a little of my notes because I definitely don't know everything but since we have been working on this stuff for a week and a half or more, I am pretty comfortable with it. Apparently it's also a surprise on whether or not we can use our blogs (I hope we can). At the end of class we were shown a few videos that were pretty weird- one was called "Baa" another was called "Cows" or something, and another was just- I don't really even know what I was watching but I want to meet the guy with the mind to make that stuff. So now I'm going to go home and study and hopefully do really well on this test.

Finished the NOVA Video

In Human Geo today we got the news that we are having a test on Thursday and I'm praying it won't hurt as much as the last test. Anyways we finished up the NOVA video today and it was very depressing but I still learned quite a lot. We continued on learning about Africa and Kenya, it's crazy that the life expectancy went from 65-49 years. It's also crazy and sad that such a huge country has a death rate that's rising (first time this has happened). We were told the story of Flourence, a young girl no older than 20, and her whole family died of AIDS. She was left to care for her siblings and families kids, and worked hard to feed house and clothe them- until she got AIDS herself. She caught this deadly disease by doing what so many other women in that type of poverty do- sell her body for money. It's really sad that this is one of the only ways how many women can get money. Adults between the ages of 20 and 40 are decreasing by an insanely large amount, and the number of elders and kids/teenagers are increasing rapidly. The video said that 19% of african women use birth control- and 60% of women worldwide use birth control. Half of the girls in Kenya have children and they are only 18 or 19- some even my age which is insane to think about. The fertility rate there is 4, and India's is 3; neither are very good. It's a scary thought to think about how the population of the world could nearly double the size it is now in less than 50 years. In conclusion, we could solve this problem so many people and women are having by letting them have fewer children or none at all like they want instead of the husbands and families forcing them to give birth over and over again, giving them more rights and opportunities, and allowing them to get jobs so they can have better ways of getting money and providing for themselves and their families.