Group items tagged

Good article and shocking pictures! We were discussing these things in period 7 on Thursday. 

So colorful!

1) This map depicts the various religions, denominations, and sects within the United States. It shows how these faiths are distributed across the nation and how dense they are in their respective locations. This map is invaluabe in describing what Americans believe and where they do so. 2)I chose this map because of how helpful and powerful it is. It does a fantastic job at being straigh forward in showing the geographer where different faiths reside. From this information, the human geographer can make powerful inferences on why things are the way they are regarding religion. 3) Using the "Religious Landscape Survey" website, the students should write a well-thought-out response answering the prompt "How are different faiths distributed across America?"

1. This map shows all the religions practiced in the United States and exactly what percentage of people practice each religion. You can also click a link that shows us how many people actively practice their religion. 2. I chose this because it is interesting to see exactly what religions are being practiced and if people are actually practicing their religion. 3. I think an interesting project idea would be to first, take a survey of the people in your neighborhood of what religion they practice. Secondly, take a survey of how many actively practice their religion. Then look up the same statistics for 2000 and compare the results to see how it has changed. After make a presentation/power point showing these results seeing whether more people practice their religions or not now a days as opposed to 13 years ago.

Brendan- I love your project idea. I think it would be more beneficial than just writing or creating a visual representation because it would be more like you're doing real field work and it would be more real life than writing about the map.

An article discussing how the E-Cigarette industry is quickly growing and diffusing around the world. 

After reading Danyelle's article and the one we read in class, I wonder if the increase in Chinese wages will have an impact on the industries which produce the e-cig. If the factor of cheap labor is taken away, but available somewhere else, how will that shift the distribution and manufacturing of the cigarettes.

An article discussing how the E-Cigarette industry is quickly growing and diffusing around the world. 

Why do your teachers ask you to text mark, annotate, etc. while you read? Check out this article. 

They want us to be able to analyze what we read - not to just place it in the context of the story, but to make connections, look for symbols, etc. Thar way, the text gains a deeper meaning instead of 'we're reading this just because it's a book we were told to read', it's we're reading this because it's an excellent example of symbolism and character development - which you might not pick up on unless you were analyzing the text. Suddenly, a book you were told to read has more meaning because now you know why you are reading it and why it is important to your education. Like how we have to look for the themes of geography in our books. If we were just reading the book, I would be done faster, but I would wonder why, exactly, was this book going to be important for my continuing education. This makes me pay attention to details and make connections to the textbook section you gave us. Education fascinates me because it is so important, yet people have so many different views on how everything should be done and whether or not the current system works.

Thank you for your insight, Maddie. I agree! Reading with a purpose helps build our framework as to what should be gained from the book. Annotations help document thoughts and ideas on our mind so we don't forget, too. Happy reading to all.

When viewing our website about a variety of unique folk clothing items, you will be pulled into our "journey"around the world as we travel to Africa, the Arctic, the Middle East, and South America in search of folk fashion.

I liked how well organized and informative your website is. In addition to the hijab, I know that women in the Middle East also wear burkas (which were in the top picture) as well as chadors.

I enjoyed this website a lot! I thought it was very interesting to see how different the dress is in places all over the world, as well as the impact that the environment has on style of clothing. Your website is organized and overall very well done! Great job!

When you visit our site you can learn more about the diffusion of a popular sport (soccer) compared to a lesser known sport called croquet. Interact by watching videos and reading more about how sports differ across the world.

This is an interesting website! I never knew about croquet before, but now I feel well informed. I like the use of images as well.

I thought it was really interesting that croquet originated as popular culture, whereas soccer originated as folk culture. Today, in our society, soccer is considered more popular culture, whereas croquet is thought of being more of folk culture. I like how you included that soccer was banned and then legalized again because I remember reading about that in class.

This interesting article relates to foreign events in the Middle East, mainly in the city of Palmyra and the Islamic State. It details the destruction of a religious monument, and as geographers, we can infer that the event was malicious since the site (and others like it) are cherished places of worship. Through the study of cultures, we can determine the motives of people such as those affiliated with the Islamic State.

This article discusses the Israeli-Palestine conflict and how that has turned into many cruel acts of violence. What would possess someone to kill these men, especially on the stairs of a holy place?

Four rabbis and a policeman were killed by 2 palestinians inside of a jewish synagogue, and many people fear that the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is becoming a religious war, since they have different beliefs. Why would the Palestinians decide to attack the Israelis?

Since the Communist takeover of the region in 1949, the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority in China, have gotten a lot of religious and cultural persecution by Han Chinese. Similar to convicted communists during The Red Scare, Uyghurs have been prosecuted under false circumstances for separatist activities. While this isn't necessarily a dispute over territory, it's certainly an ethnic conflict and because of these hostilities, Uyghurs have a hard time finding migrant work within China. How does this relate to other ethnic conflicts like in Russia or Palestine?

I agree with Alexander about the similarity to Native Americans. Not only is China helping these people with jobs, but they are also making them go through the training programs which includes learning Mandarin, to the point where the minorities are in fear of losing their own identities. The Native Americans were forced to go through similar programs in order to "help them".

One of the cities that we will be traveling to in China is Xian. This city has a large Muslim minority. Do ethnic groups form enclaves as a refuge?

The Ebola outbreak is very dangerous as we can see, but can we truly contain it?

Good question, Adam. What kind of diffusion might disease be considered in this context?

1) This table is obviously invaluable in answering questions concerning the regional distribution of faiths in the United States. It includes the following U.S. regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, West. In addition, the followers of various denominations of Christianity and other significant faiths are compared. It's important to note the difference in sample size. 2) This link helps me understand the geographic perspective of religion because I can make hypotheses and draw connections based on the regional distribution of the followers of each faith. Regions differ from one another, and these differences could explain why one faith is more prominent then another. 3) How are religious faiths connected to the demographic tradition? Analyze the religious compositions of two countries- one developed and one developing. Draw a conclusion based on your findings. Determine if your conclusion is viable- can any generalizations be made about religion? Does religion suggest other characteristics of a person, or is faith a matter to be examined solo?

1) This link leads to a comparison of percentage of people's view of their religion in their own life. It divides into very important, to somewhat important, to not too/not important at all, and so on. 2) I chose this graphic because it gives an idea to what a group of people truly feels about their own faith. Because all in all, I feel one is an actual Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Mormon, etc. only if they faithful towards their proclaimed faith. So this graphic helps give a good representation of how many "full time" adherents there are to a specific faith in the United states. 3) One task I would create would be to complete an alternate form of graph to represent the data. For example, a pie chart or bar graph.To add to it, maybe even research the same information, but for the whole world instead of just the United states if possible.

1) This link leads to a comparison of percentage of people's view of their religion in their own life. It divides into very important, to somewhat important, to not too/not important at all, and so on. 2) I chose this graphic because it gives an idea to what a group of people truly feels about their own faith. Because all in all, I feel one is an actual Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Mormon, etc. only if they faithful towards their proclaimed faith. So this graphic helps give a good representation of how many "full time" adherents there are to a specific faith in the United states. 3) One task I would create would be to complete an alternate form of graph to represent the data. For example, a pie chart or bar graph. To add to it, maybe even research the same information, but for the whole world instead of just the United states if possible.

It's interesting to read that manufacturing costs in China have risen, which could potentially cut back on the amount of outsourcing from the US.

This relates to the article we read in class and I remember it saying that the government supports the increase in wages. Its interesting to see your comment on how companies who outsource will react.

This surprises me since it seems that there is such a push to continue to outsource. I wonder what the US will do: will we continue to outsource, or will more domestic jobs be created?

This article describes how humans are ultimately the world's top predator. Through research and studies it is easy to see that we are much more dominant over many of the top animal predators such as lions, tigers and bears. The theme of nature culture is shown through this incident as us humans are killing off some of the worlds top predators. Because of this, ecosystems are not in balance anymore as their top predators are being taken away. This can therefore change the evolution of these animals as they reproduce. In the future, we could have a shorter supply of these specific animals, especially the ones we depend on as a supply of food. The author poses a solution to this problem in the article as well. Human hunters should focus on hunting the young and preserve the adults, as they are capable of having offspring. Will human hunters stop the overhunting of these predators? Or will they continue to destroy the ecosystems?

The film industry is trying to bring the dangers of advancing terror groups into light. Groups like ISIS are spreading fear and influence across regions like the Middle East, but they are also spreading their influence to places all around the world. Social media outlets have made this spread of ideas possible and able to thrive. Globalization or the interconnection between all of us in this day and age has given us the ability to spread and receive ideas like these with ease. Anyway, important people that run the film industry may realize the importance of this danger and decide that they should spread it to get the audience to realize it as well. It's a case of hierarchical diffusion and I believe that their goal is eventually expansion diffusion. It's all about spreading ideas to where they're not necessarily regarded as widely. I know for a fact that the war on terror isn't as prevalent in our minds as it is in the people that are collateral damage from it. Filmmakers are trying to change that with themes that act like metaphors to the situations going on right now in war-torn areas. These producers and creators of films take advantage of the popularity of the medium to display their ideas and spread them. However, will these messages make their way through to the public? Will they see that the war on terror is sometimes as bad as the films' problems? Will the medium have any effect on the progress we make with ridding the world of these groups of terror?

You got it. The film industry has certainly been a vehicle for globalization. We tend to trust ideas from those we admire and respect or from mediums such as Youtube that are easily accessible. Invisible Children came out with a Youtube video a few years ago about the African war lord, Joseph Kony. https://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc How might something similar be created about ISIS?

Yes, I remember this video. I had watched it when it had caught so much traction. I think a huge difference between Kony and ISIS is that I feel like not many people really knew about Kony while the news has basically insured that everybody knows about ISIS. When it's a new topic, people may be more interested in finding out more about it, like with Kony. But I feel like if a Youtube video like that was created for ISIS, it might not gain the same traction because it has been covered heavily for the past year. That's why I'm so intrigued with the hidden themes in movies because I feel that subtlety is the best way to bring forth new ideas without being overbearing.

Pleas take a moment to ask yourself the following questions: Have you ever wondered what TV shows there are in other countries? Have you ever wondered if these shows are similar to ours? Did they copy us or did we copy them? If you have already pondered this topic or answered "yes" to any of the above questions then you will absolutely LOVE this site! It examines the similarities and differences between US shows and Asian shows! Watch popular Asian TV shows right now, they're only a click away!

The website was very nice and informative. I never knew that China has similar shows to us! That relates to what we learned in the Ted Talk about China cloning social media like Twitter and YouTube.

The website had a nice layout and the pictures and videos added much to it. I did not know our TV shows influenced countries like Japan to copy them. Great job talking about the rapid diffusion of new electronic technology like Netflix and connecting it to class!

Learn about a concept that is critical for society's future.

We will learn about urban planning in late April. Check this video out.

We will be viewing this short TED talks video in class next week. Question to ponder: What obstacles do migrants face? (LEQ 3.4)