Guns Germs and Steel Video

Today we watched a video on Guns Germs and Steel. This video is about a man named Jared that goes on an exploration to Newginni. The people that live here are not that advanced. They don't have the technology that we do. They mostly eat a crop called wild sego. This food is part of their diet. This doesn't have a lot of nutrients or protein for the people but its the only thing that they can eat. The people that live in Newginni are called Newgirrians. Newgerrians are intelligent, but intelligent in a different way. They are able to live in the forest without the future technology that we have. They are able to build house on there own and live on their own. That what makes them special.

First Semester 2 test

Today during class, I took the first Semester 2 test. I thought the test was easy because we got to use our blogs. I copied all the notes onto my blog so I thought I did a good job. I couldn't get one blank space so I had to guess on it. I got the rivers wrong because I mixed up the Tigris and Euphrates river. I think I got the Mediterranean Sea part incorrect because I spelled it wrong. For the short answers, I thought they were easy. It asked questions like what life would be like for people 200,000 years back,  why is our time not prehistory anymore, how has life improved when people started settling. Overall I thought the test was fairly easy.

Definitions for test

• prehistory - the period of time before written records.

• Paleolithic Age - second part of the Stone Age beginning about 750,00 to 500,000 years BC and lasting until the end of the last ice age about 8,500 years BC

• Neolithic Age - latest part of the Stone Age beginning about 10,000 BC in the Middle East 

• Agricultural Revolution - a significant change in agriculture that occurs whenthere are discoveries, inventions, or new technologies that change production

• cuneiform - is one of the earliest known systems of writing, distinguished by its wedge-shaped marks on clay tablets

• ziggurat - is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat in what was the city of Ur near Nasiriyah, in present-day Dhi Qar Province, Iraq.

• Indo-Europeans - an ancient ethnic group speaking the Proto-Indo-European language 

Mesopotamia Notes

The Earliest Cities: Mesopotamia
- The district known as Sumer occupied the land between the Tigris and Euphrates river
- Population increased dramatically due to new irrigation techniques
- Cities and towns were founded, some with as many as 40,000 inhabitants
- Better food storage allowed for diversity in profession: priest, tradesmen, artisans, politicians, farmers
- Kings emerged, as did family dynasties and the concept of the "city-state"
- Sumerians invented the earliest form of writing, known as "cuneiform"
- A pantheon of Sumerian Gods and Goddesses emerged, with many of the deities representing the natural elements of he world
- The world's first (surviving) epic was the Sumerian "Epic of Gilgamesh", which told of a great flood
Sumerians first divided the hour into sixty minutes and the minute into sixty seconds; They also organized a calendar based on moon cycles
- The ziggurat was a Sumerian temple built on top of a "mountain" of earth

Civilization in Mesopotamia
- Wandering nomads drove herds of domesticating animals in many areas, especially to the south of Sumer in arabia
- 2350 B.C.: Their gods took the place of previous gods took the place of previous gods and all were forced
- King Hammurabi of Babylon created a series of laws known as “Hammurabi’s Code” - laws that included “an eye for an eye” and regulations of marriage, divorce, and punishments for all sorts of crimes

Prehistory to Civilization Notes

From Prehistory to Civilization, 3000-1200 B.C.
Before Civilization;: The Prehistoric Era
     The origins and "Ages" of Human Brings
- Prehistory: Before things were written down
- 200,000 years ago a human species emerged in southwest Africa
- 14,000 years ago, a worldwide human race existed
- Earliest prehistoric age is the Paleolithic age (Old Stone Age)
- Neolithic Age (New Stone Age) was marked by advance tool making and the beginnings of agriculture
- Initially, humans were parts of migratory  groups which hunted, fished, and gathered plants for food

The Prehistoric Era
     The Agriculture Revolution
- Also known as the Neolithic Revolution, this was a shift from itinerant hunting/gathering to more permanent settlements centered on agriculture ( beginning in southwestern Asia )
- Population rose due to increased ability to care for young children
- Hierarchies appeared in village life; the stays of women ere confirmed more to domestic duties
- Invention of wheel and plow made it possible to produce enough food for storage
- villagers were polytheistic, worshiped multiple nature, human and animal gods

2 Hour Dismissal

Today we didn’t have class because we had 2 hour dismissal.

First Day of Semester 2

Today during class was our first day of second semester. We had new students in our class. We went over the blogs that we have to do. Mr.Schicks blog is thewestcivblog.blogspot.com. He also went through the materials that we need like our notebooks. I am using my notebook from last semester. We had to make new blogs because we needed one for Western Civilization. We all had to make our blogs during class but everyone couldn’t except for 4 students. Blogger didn’t work. No one could access blogger for some reason. The website blogger didn't work. Everyone around me couldn't access it either.I tried a different way. I went to google and then go the icon wight the boxes. I scrolled down and clicked on blogger. Then the page led to my blogger. I clicked create new blog. I created my blog but it said that the page was invalid. I asked some of the students that created their account already to help me on my free mod. For some reason theirs didn't work either on the free mod. It was working before but now it doesn't. Even back then when I tried to blog in school, I had to go to my page in order to blog, but when I tried to go to blogger to go to my account, it doesn't work. When I got home, I tried to make the blog again and it finally worked! Blogger does not work in the school for some reason.