super big brain mega smart blog made by david!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today in class we discussed what situation is in geographical terms. In contrast to site, situation describes the location of an unfamiliar place in relation to a familiar one. Situation is important in determining the importance and value of a location, much like site. For example, being next to a harbor allows for easy transport of goods so many cities that border a coast thrive. We then got into why it is that almost all products seem to come from overseas, mostly southern-east Asian countries especially China. The reason for this is that, despite transport costs diminishing, it is cheaper to use countries like China. When I say "Countries like China" I mean countries with less Union control, and therefore fewer workplace laws. This means that the workers don't have insurance or even decent pay. This makes it so, from a purely profit-based standpoint, exploiting these laws is a smart and reasonable move. However, from an ethical standpoint, it is incredibly cruel.

Today in class I learned about how geologists define where things are located. Geologists use many characteristics to define a site, su ch as a  climate, water sources, topography, soil, vegetation, latitude, and elevation. It was further elaborated on about how two sites would rarely share all these characteristics identically. An example was given about the difference between Maryland and North Korea, as both approximately share the same latitude. Despite one similar characteristic, everything else was different. We also went over humans having the ability to change some characteristics of a site. An example of creating new land off of  Manhattan  to make new land for apartment and office buildings. We weighed the pros and cons, the pros mostly being about the vast number of job increase to perform the project and the cons being mostly environmental damage. Personally, I believe that the pros outweigh the cons.

I was absent today due to illness.

Today in class, we received our quiz back. Just as I had thought I only missed the agora which is annoying as now I have those five letters engraved into my memory as stone. I didn't know what the bonus question was but at least I left it blank instead of filling it in with whatever monstrosity Christo used. I also got a minus one on my first essay because I forgot about calling Socrates a gadfly.  Mr. Schick also wrote a note on my second essay which made me feel special until I realized that everyone got a note which made me feel betrayal. Most of the questions were not that hard, except the one where you had to find words with the root word polis. Despite this, I got it right through the sheer power of luck. Mr. Schick thinks I was smart or something as if you think about the word police you can see how it is related to the word polis, but he fails to consider the simple fact that I do not think. I took the same approach as Christo by choosing a word that just happens to have a

Someone might be surprised to hear that there are many different ways to map out the globe. However, due to the Earth being a sphere, it is impossible to map it out on a two-dimensional rectangle with complete accuracy. Due to this, many cartographers create different world maps that each has accuracy in one department and inaccuracy in another. You say that these maps specialize in giving one set of information. The standard map that is used in American schools is the Mercator Projection map. This map specialized in keeping directional bearings and presenting something called rhumbs as straight lines. This makes the Mercator Map useful for navigational purposes, but it is not very accurate with the size of countries and continents. This leads to a lot of disinformation with the size of countries such as Greenland being roughly the same size as Africa when in reality Greenland is actually much smaller. The Peter Projection map does a better job of showing the relative sizes of countrie

Today in class we went over maps. We started our lesson by walking up to the board and looking at three different maps, titled a, b, and c. A and B looked pretty normal. A was a standared map of America, which is the only map that actually matters (thats a joke please don't take points off). The second map was a standard world map with textures as well. However, the third map was strange as it was a world map, but the countries were warped and different sizes. I already slightly knew why it was like this based off a Vsause video. The reason it looked like that was that it is actually more accurate than what we're used to. If you were to look at Earth from space, or a globe, the countries would look more similar to map c than map b. Map b is called a Mercator and was used for sailing as the lines of longitude and latitude were straight, but by having it like that it made the north bigger than the south. Map c is called a Peter projection and is the more accurate size and distanc

Today in class we had our first test. Most of the questions weren't too difficult. The test had a significant lack of multiple-choice questions. There were way too many short answers and I believe that the class would benefit from more multiple-choice as it improves our test-taking ability in preparation for the SAT. I somewhat enjoyed (as much as one can enjoy a question on a test) the second essay questions since it was more opinionated and less fact memorization, although it still did require information about Socrates and his trial. I was disappointed that there were no questions about Mr. Schick's dogs. One question I couldn't answer was what a common meeting place was called in Ancient Greece. The answer was an agora, but during the test whenever I tried to think of it the only thing that would come to me was arete. I hope that me saying that it wasn't that hard doesn't jinx it, otherwise I'll look like an idiot (and not the ancient greek type).

Today in class we went over the question we had to do yesterday. After that, we continued reading the slides. We focused more on Socrates and his life. Socrates was born into the working class and later served in the Peloponnesian War. Some believe that these two aspects lead to what his views on the world became. When Socrates became a philosopher, he would meet with young students just outside the agora. He used the Socratic method, a way of making someone think critically, using questions. This method helped shaped the Scientific method. He was put on trial for corrupting the youth and not worshiping the greek gods. At his trial, when asked to suggest his own punishment, he suggested having himself be rewarded instead. Of course, this was too ridiculous so his punishment was decided for him. When the votes came in, it showed that he was found guilty, barely.  He was sentenced to death by drinking poison. 

Agora- An agora is defined as a public open space used for assemblies and markets. The literal meaning of this word is "gathering place." Polis- Polis was a city-state in ancient Greece known for its philosophical ideas and properties. After looking at the Excellence slide it has come to my attention that polic also means a political entity ruled by the people. Importance of the year 508 BC- In 508 BC, Athenian democracy was established in Athens. It was established under the rule of Cleisthenes. It was created after the tyrannical rule of Hippias was put to a halt when Cleisthenes exiled Hippias. As a means to prevent another tyrannical rule, Cleisthenes established democracy. Socrates- Socrates was a very important ancient philosopher as he is credited as one of the founding members of western philosophy an d first western moral philosopher.  Death of Socrates- Socrates was sentenced to death for not worshipping the gods that the state required you to worship and corrupt

Today in class we finished reading  Message to Garcia. Although I agree with the main theme of the essay, to be a hard worker and not be lazy, some of the things said in the essay I had to disagree with. Mainly the fact that he has no sympathy for sweatshop workers, but sheds a tear for the bosses, who do much less work and get much more money. I find it confusing that he is such an advocate for hard work, yet is completely fine when people cut corners, which could lead to life-threatening circumstances, just so they can get a quick buck. He also used derogatory terms but given the time period that the essay was published, and excepting what the social norms were back then, I can understand why he would use them. However, if I was too skip over these moments, I can appreciate the very nice writing and how it is very good to inspire and motivate someone.

Today in class we went over two things, the difficulty and troubles with managing time that comes with High School life, and   Elbert Hubbard with his Message to Garcia essay. Currently, my  high school schedule is fairly lax in comparison with some of my peers. While we were discussing what our own personal schedule was, some of the people talked about how they have very little breaks in their day to day life, even some struggling to find time to eat. Although I'm part of the cross country team, I do not suffer such an extreme lack of time. However, by the time I complete my homework I have only a couple hours before I go to sleep. This means that I'm working around twelve hours a day, which is significantly more than what I had to do in middle school. In middle school, I rarely participated in extracurricular activities, and homework took a very minuscule time in comparison to what I have to do now. This ties in fairly accurately to the theme of  Message to Garcia, where the

My first day of John Carroll was very delightful. As I walked into the building I noticed a few familiar faces, as many students of my middle school, Saint Margaret, also chose John Carroll as their High School. However, I was more so overwhelmed by the incredibly large group of new faces. Because of this, I was at first intimidated, but then reminded myself that many of these strangers also feel the same as I do and that I should use this as an opportunity to make new friends. I started my day in Advisory, where I knew only one person, my friend Caroline. After that, I went to my locker, which I had trouble opening at first but soon got the hang of. After I put away my bag, I headed to Biology. Biology was a nice experience, although I didn't know anyone. After that, I went to English. I noticed that the room was small, and the desks were cramped. I was placed next to people that I liked, both old friends and new. After that came a grave mistake. I looked at my schedule and saw th