Potential Books for Reviewing - Epidemics Blog Link

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Fast Food Fatalities Powerpoint Slides APGeoGroup5Period5

Presenters: Katie Taylor, Charlotte Sutherland, and Maggie Berry

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"The Tipping Point" & "Chapter 1: An Intoduction to Human Geography"

Katie Taylor
September 7, 2014


Thoughts and Ruminations

Article: U.N. Struggles to Stem Haiti Cholera Epidemic
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/americas/un-struggles-to-stem-haiti-cholera-epidemic.html?_r=1

Chapoteau Haiti was in desperate need of funds from the United Nations in order to fund clinics to treat the cholera epidemic, but the United Nations failed to raise even $5 million of the $2 billion promised, so clinics ran out of even the most basic of treatment supplies and many were forced to shut down. Then 8,562 died from a disease which should be easily treatable.

Readings:
The Tipping Point Chapter One By Malcolm Gladwell
"Chapter One: An Introduction to Human Geography" of Human Geography
"How do Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point and chapter one of Human Geography relate?"

            In both Malcolm Gladwell's best seller "The Tipping Point" and chapter 1 of "Human Geography People, Places and Culture" the authors discuss epidemics using the examples of the spread of diseases and fashion trends through cultural diffusion.  Gladwell starts his chapter by using the example of the contagious spread of hush puppy shoes in 1994. The hush puppy epidemic probably all started with a few hipsters wearing the outdated shoes with no intention of promoting them. Through line of sight and word of mouth the popularity of a shoe which had been near extinction continued to rise. As more and more people started catching on throughout the area, it continued to gain public attention until it had snowballed into a national phenomena.

            The text book refers to this process of the spread of an epidemic through connected individuals as contagious diffusion. Although it uses the example of silly bands instead of hush puppies, the principle discussed is still the same. The brightly colored silicon bands may not be all that exciting for the average adult, but the product spread like wildfire among school children. One day only a few children would be adorned with the silly bands on their wrists and the following day the whole class would have them. Much like the spread of hush puppies, the wearers of the silly bands were not deliberately trying to promote the product, but nonetheless its popularity spread like a highly contagious cold.
             In addition to the hush puppy epidemic that swept the nation in the 90's, Gladwell examined the spread of several sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis, HIV and Aids and how they were mapped with the use of medical geography. Each time a new patient is admitted to a public clinic in Baltimore for treatment of syphilis or gonorrhea, their address is subsequently entered into a database which maps all the cases in the city with a black star. This use of medical geography to create disease maps helps geographers understand more about how the epidemic spreads and its patterns, which is the first step towards finding a cause and a cure. In "Human Geography People, Places and Culture" it discusses how this same technique was also used to map the spread of Cholera which swept the Soho district of London in the 1850's. Eventually through the use of the map created, scientists were able to determine that the epidemic was being spread through the water pumps and were able to advise people to boil their water, nearly halting the spread of the disease altogether.
            The two authors insights brought several important concepts to the table. The first being the ease through which an epidemic can disseminate and the fact that it only takes one individual to be the catalyst for the rapid spread of an epidemic. Secondly the ways geography helps to stop epidemics and lastly both authors illustrated that whether it be shoes, silly bands or STDs, geography is essential for understanding what propels the spread of epidemics.

 

This is a map of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in which epidemic, such as cholera easily entered the countries through people coming to help with disaster relief after the earthquakes and then spread gontagiously due to poor health care.  

Why Rome Fell

Katie Taylor, World History Period 6                                                                                  April 5, 2014

Thoughts and Reflections on: "Why Rome Fell"

By Professor Gerhard Rempel

Rome is and always will be considered as one of the greatest empires of the ancient world but Rome, like any great empire, eventually had its downfall.  The down fall of Rome was caused by a combination of many unfortunate events, but when we boil it down three major causes appear: an economic crisis caused by over expenditure and subsequently high taxes, military greed and lack of allegiances and two horrible plagues.  

The Roman way of life was extravagant and their entire culture seemed to be based off of conquests and spending money. The Roman government ran into numerous expenses trying to fund its growing empire, while also paying for things such as building public buildings, the monthly dole to feed the public, and lets not forget the hundred million dollars spent annually on the games. As the Roman Empire expanded more and more money was required to sustain the growing army and maintain all of its territory, but the Romans continued to maintain there lavish spending habits throwing the country into an economic spiral. As the country continued to move closer toward bankruptcy the government raised taxes on the middle class. The trusting people, who were well fed because of the dole and mostly happy because of the constant entertainment were content with the rise in taxes briefly but eventually the high taxation of the middle class dissolved it entirely leaving only extreme wealth and extreme poverty. 

Through its conquests Rome had acquired many territories that really had no loyalty to the Roman Empire, but with it's expansion came the need for new troops and soon the Roman army was mostly comprised of either foreigners who had no allegiances to the Roman Empire or poorly trained gentle farmers. Eventually this caused turmoil throughout the empire by causing civil wars and in all the chaos the soldiers pillaged and terrorized Roman citizens. While the Romans fought to both expand and defend their empire from outside attacks and keep a handle on the civil wars caused by disloyal territories and overly taxed civilians, Rome was essentially being attacked on all fronts and was burning through its resources at lightning speed. 

The final straw to break the camel's back, or in this case to break Rome, was the two plagues that came. The first of which lasted 15 years and wiped out 1/4 of the entire Roman Empire and the second caused rome to loose 5,000 each day at its hight. These devastating losses combined with the loss of troops in civil wars throughout the empire eventual seemed to Stop Rome in its tracks.  

Letter to Lucius

Dear Lucius, 

You probably don’t realize this, but writing letters is so tedious. You would really love these text message things that I keep telling you about. I’m happy to hear your brother made it to 15 alive. I suppose I have never worried about my sister making it to 15. Rome has a pretty scary survival rate… maybe it would be a little better if you all cut back on the drinks and didn’t bathe with strangers. In Colorado most of us do bathe daily, but we take showers privately and we usually don’t sit in other peoples disgusting filth unless we go to Water World.

I think you are pretty lucky to live so close to the city though, apart from the fire hazards and high risk of disease it must be pretty nice to be able to walk everywhere you go. I live pretty far away from any city so to the capital of my state it is about 45 minutes away by car (yet another invaluable invention you should really try and look into inventing).

I also heard about your brother’s new toga, that’s exciting. My sister also got a new item of clothing except she bought a zebra print onesie with a hood that has speakers. No one in the family could keep her from buying it. In my generation we are allowed to choose a lot of things like who we marry and at what age, but with the freedom of to choose also comes some bad fashion mistakes on everyone’s part. Arranged marriages don’t really happen much anymore, which is a good thing. On the bright side you will probably never get dumped. 

Congratulations on nearing the end of your education by the way. At 17 in my country you would be just nearing the middle. You would still have one more year of high school and then possibly years of college and graduate school before you would be finished. 

You mentioned that you lived in the city in a poorer neighborhood. Here socio- economic status is often a combination of education, income, and occupation and each of those have an effect on each other essentially putting a box of limitations around many people that is very hard to escape. If some one isn't well educated, then they probably have a low paying job and then there kids may not go to college and then they may not get a high paying job and their children will be effected and so on and so forth. There are also always geniuses who never attend college and yet create some of the worlds most used products like iPhone. I’m still waiting to see if my streak of genius comes out, but my guess is that I will go to college and get a perfectly boring job.

I think its amazing that your family is so close and that you have family meals together. My family rarely eats together. When we are hungry we just go to the refrigerator and get food. We only have large meals together in special occasions. I also think it is realty cool that your father taught you so much about athletics. Where I live it is a little different. Dads teach most kids the rudimentary knowledge about athletics, but when we get into school kids often play on sports teams where coaches take over most of the teaching. I currently play basketball and volleyball. You don’t have either of those sports (but if you are looking for a new idea for an awesome sports think peach basket...enough said.).

I actually forgot what religion you practiced but you will be happy…or unhappy to hear that Christianity is still being widely practiced. Sense the death of Jesus over a hundred different denominations have been formed over both nitpicky disputes and full-fledged wars. I am 7th day Adventist which means I go to church on Saturday where as many other Christians attend church on Sunday. 

It's also exciting that you now have the opportunity to command soldiers. In the United States you must be 18 to enter our army but in your first few years in the military there is virtually no chance that you would command soldiers. I don't think I will be going into the army even though women have the right to join the army.

I have to go write my friend Oga the cave man.

Write soon, 

Your friend Katie 

Human story chapter 7 questions

  Katie Taylor, World History Period 6                                                       April 17, 2014

Thoughts and reflections on: The Human Story by James C Davis 

1) What did the Indus Valley leave behind that archeologists believe has connections to Hinduism, and more specifically, Shiva?

Indus Valley civilization left behind seals which contained a god with an erection which had a strong resemblance to the Hindu god, Shiva. Archeologists recover phalluses which is one of the symbols for shiva today. 

2) How did sacrifices play into what the Aryans believed about the state of the world?

The Aryan's believed in a fragile world which could be either reborn or thrown in to chaos by re-enacting the sacrifice of Prajaptati correctly or incorrectly. 

3) Where did the religion known today as Hinduism remerge from?

Hinduism was combination of the belief systems belonging to the Upanishads and the Aryans and originated in the Indus Valley 

4) What was Siddhartha's journey to become the Buddha?

Siddhartha was a prince with all he could ever wish for and was sheltered from the evils of the world. Eventually he began to wonder about the world so Siddhartha left to find enlightenment and through meditation and after eating a bowl of curds he found the answers he searched for and be came the Buddha. 

5) What man made the largest contributions to, and essentially created Christianity? How did he do this? Why was his approach appealing to others?

The man who made the largest contributions to, and essentially created Christianity was Jesus. 

He did this through his teachings and miracles and spread them via the travels of him and his disciples. His approach was appealing because unlike many religions and communities even, Jesus was excepting and willing to talk to anyone no matter what there backgrounds or social standings were.  

6) How is Islam different from Christianity? Who started Islam? How did his leadership come about?

Islam and Christianity are different in the sense that Islam was the platform for their military and Christianity was spreading, however not via conquest. Muhammad was the founder of Islam and his leadership came about when an angle named Gabriel came to him and told him that he was the messenger of God.

7) What role did Muhammed's time in Mecca play in the development of Islam as a religion?

Muhammad's teachings were not initially welcomed by the people of Mecca, but after Islam peacefully conquered the city many people converted to this new religion. This was the first major step toward their goal of converting millions and the rest is history. 

8) How did the Arabs conquer so much land so quickly? How did this contribute to the spread of Islam? Did the Arabs force Islam on the conquered peoples?

The Arabs were inspired because the believed it was their mission to spread the word of god and their conquests seemed to be the result of some sort of domino effect because once they concord a city the Arabs could use the captives and new converts to feed their growing army. 

The Muslims constant victories made it look like the power of God was on their side, which was a very convincing reason for people to convert to Islam. The Arabs did force their religion on people despite the fact that their main purpose was to spread the word of god, because they believed that it was easier to rule people who were split by several religions. 

9) What two events stopped Islam from spreading throughout Europe? How did these victories for the Europeans help the spread of other faiths?

The two events which stopped Islam from spreading throughout Europe were getting defeated by France and loosing the invasion and the uneventful blockade at Constantinople. These two European victories not only stopped the spread of Islam, but they also allowed other religions to expand, because the Muslims stopped their conquests allowing other religions to develop in this new safety. 

10) How are Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam similar and different?

They are similar in the sense that they all believe in a creation and afterlife, they all have codes or morals or standards to follow, and they all have become major religions of today.

The differences are that Hinduism did not have a set prophet and Hinduism and Buddhism are polytheistic where as Christianity and Islam are mono theistic. Additionally they differed in where they originated, along with the views on life's purpose and their views on the creation of the universe. 

Jainism blog URL

http://jainismhistory.weebly.com