Blog Topic #16

This summer I am moving to Cantrall, Illinois, to work at camp CILCA. It is a Lutheran camp that does a wide variety of different camps. They offer sports camps, kindergarten to high school aged camps and family camps. I am going to work as a camp counselor along with about 20 other people. I am very excited for this opportunity and can't wait till it comes.

Blog Topic #15

The name I searched was "Jacobitz" and not-surprisingly the two main countries are the United States and Germany. The top cities were Cottbus, Brandenburg, and Kenesaw Nebraska. Which is where my family is from and has lived for many generations. Other places that came up were Hamburg, Germany, Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Spencer, Wisconsin. This is not surprising because our family is very German, from our name to our origins.

Blog Topic #14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8JbKpuWBlg
This link is a slide show of China and surrounding points of interest. This slide show depicts China as idyllic and with a booming economy and the perfect place to live. It shows perfect pictures of its landscape and busy pictures of its cities that show development and growth.

Blog Topic # 13

The strangest thing that I have ever eated is probably Alligator. I was tricked into eating it by my cousin. He has relation from Louisianna and they brought some back with them when they visited Nebraska.
I believe that culture has a great effect on our diets. And I think for the most part globilization will spread other foods to different parts of the world, but I think that most cultures will retain their original eating habits. This is what is usually available to them and they have a long history with the certain food.

Blog Topic #12

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

This picture is of President Hu Jintao and his meeting with US Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Blog Topic #11

This particular image was one that I thought was at an angle that really showed the earth from a view that is not normally seen. We have always heard that the earth is 3/4 water, but rarely do we see images that display this. We concentrate on the land masses, which makes sense, because that is where we live, but that is only a small percentage of the earth. It is amazing to think just how much water there really is on the earth, and how much of the earth is still undiscovered and unknown.

Blog #10

When I watched the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" it really opened my eyes. I thought that this movie did a very good job of relating life as a Slumdog. I also really like the presentation of the movie and the story. Basing the movie around "Who wants to be a Millionaire" and then explaining how he knew the answers was a good way of portraying the movie. It really showed what life can be like living in India and having nothing. I thought that the politics played in the movie showed just how corrupt life can be.

Blog Topic #9

For Spring Break I got the opportunity to go with a friend to her house in San Jose, California. I'm not entirely sure why, but I have never traveled farther west than Colorado. I've been to most of the eastern states, but not west. On Tuesday of Spring Break week, we got to go into San Fransisco. This was a lot of fun, but a very exhausting day. We walked all over the city and saw many of its famous monuments. We also got to walk on the Golden Gate Bridge, which was amazing to see how big it was. Then on Wednesday we went to Monterey Bay Aquarium, and then to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. This was fun, but since it was March most of the Boardwalk was closed and the water was cold. On Friday we drove up to Sierra at Tahoe and Snowboarded. This was my first time snowboarding and I got very sick, but it was still very fun and the views were amazing. On Saturday, coincidentally, my brother from Nebraska, was in San Fransisco visiting his friend and I got to meet up with them and we went to Alcatraz. This was especially cool, but at the same time very eery and awkward. The tour was very well done and I learned a lot about "the Rock". This was a Great Spring Break trip.

Blog Topic #8

I think that a little moderation on both sides of the argument would help the whole situation. I do not agree with giving $6 Billion dollars to Africa is a good option, but I don't think that we can just cut them off. And Yes, teaching them how to develop their own countries is the best option, but it's hard to come from a developed country to a new and strangly different country and tell them how to help themselves. This has been tried and is being tried, and it takes time. I believe that our culture is too focused on immediate gratification. We want this problem to be solved now. We don't want to invest the time in something that cannot pay top dollar.

Blog Topic # 7

HDI takes into consideration three main concepts to determine how well a country is keeping its citizens. Health, knowledge, and a decent standard of living are the three categories. Health is measured by life expectancy at birth; knowledge is measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio; and standard of living by GDP per capita. This seems to be relatively close to the division between developed and developing countries, and its seems the same countries of each list. Sub-Saharan Africa is ranked so low because they do not yet have capabilities and access to the technological advances that help in the three areas. Money is a key factor. Education, health, and standards of living are all directly associated with money. The money in these countries is not spread around very well and stayes in the hands of a few. They do not have the health advantages that developed countries have, which is why their life expectancy birth rate is so low.

Blog Topic #6

I chose this picture mainly for the fact that I love storms. I have grown up in the midwest and tornadoes are common during the summer. I love the shear force and magnitude that a tornado has. They are somewhat predictable, which has helped prevent many lives from being lost. When I get the chance to watch a tornado form, it makes me feel scared, but also exhilerated. I like this picture particularly because of the clouds and dust surrounding the tornado.

Blog Topic # 5

I do not think that this bill will do either country any good. It does not seem to benefit the normal citizens of Cuba at all. I agree with the quote that said "It's improper and should not be allowed until the Cuban government makes some reforms." I think Cuba is in the process of gaining back control of its country, but I don't think that trying to pass this bill now is going to help that process at all.

For this assignment I went to search for a news story and found and article about an indigenous tribe in Guyana. This tribe, Wai Wai, decided to ban any miners or loggers from its section of the Amazon jungle. The reasoning behind this is ecotourism, research, and traditional crafts and lifestyles. This area is unique for its jaguars, blue poison frogs, and scarlet macaws. The United States is also financially supporting this effort.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,299597,00.html?sPage=fnc/world/americas

This Cartogram shows the prevalency of Diabetes in the world. I particularly chose this cartogram because I am a diabetic. I have had type 1 diabetes since I was 8. This cartogram is based upon population. The highest concentration of diabetes is in North America and a large reason for this is because we are a society not focused on healthy eating habits. Type 2 diabetes is associated with obesity and it is understandable that the United States would be one of the leading countries having diabetes, because we are one of the leading countries of obesity.

The two countries I decided to use for this blog are Mali and Switzerland. As you can see these charts are very different. Mali is often considered one of the poorest nations in the world. Its economy centers around fishing and agriculture. The average anual salary is $1,500. Also another reason Mali is considered an LCD is because it has a very poor life expectancy rate. Mali's median age is 15.9. All of these characteristics are very damaging for its people, but combined it is devastating for the country. There is a ray of hope, however, Mali is taking drastic strides to help its economy and its people and seems to be having a good deal of success at improving the country.


Switzerland is considered an MCD. In contrast to Mali, Switzerland is considered on of the wealthiest countries in the world. Switzerland's average anual salary is $81,000 and has a very stable economy.
These two countries have very many differences, so naturally their population will be as well. Mali is definitely on the drastic incline, where Switzerland is dropping quickly.

The Most Interesting Place I've Been

Probably my favorite place to visit would have to be Florida. I'll leave that fairly vague because I like the state and not any one thing in particular. It has always been a dream of mine to live there. I like the weather mainly because it is warm and rainy. I have lived in Nebraska all my life and I have found that winter is not a fun time, and the lack of rain during the summer makes my work much more difficult. When I have visited Florida, my family mainly went to the theme parks, which were an amazing spectacle of enormous amounts of money used to build attractions. I have a lot of fond and sickening memories of my brothers forcing me to go on different rides. I also love how it is surrounded by the ocean. Again, living in Nebraska does not really satisfy any desire to see the ocean. The last and probably most important reason that I have grown fond of Florida throughout the years, is because my brother used to live there and going to Florida meant seeing him.

Geography

This is the first post for the class Geography 102.