Blog 12

Eyjafjallajokull is a volcano located under an ice cap on the lower portion Iceland. It recently irrupted on April 14 2010, and was one of the largest and most problem causing volcanic eruptions in recent history. Due to it's location near the north pole, it's right in the horizon of Europe causing a massive dust cloud to cover a lot of Northern Europe. This also makes quite large issues in the ability to travel by plane from the US to Europe. The large ash cloud was sitting right in shortest path way from US to the Europe.

This not only cause travel issues but economic issues for many European countries that's economy based on Imports and Exports. There have been several reports of delayed trips of politicians as their travels from country to country has been delayed.

Blog 11

Hong Kong International School is one of the best internation private schools. It is located in the Repulse Bay in Hong Kong and has an enrollment of only 2600. It is affliated to the Luthran church and follows an American Private school curriculum. It was established in 1966 and been recognized and accredided by the WASC since 1971. It's no wonder why they've been so highly recognized; as their average SAT scores is sitting up in the 1700 mark.

They not only have great academics but they are Div-1 champions in Soccer and have an excellent fine arts program.

Blog 10

Andrew Zimmern has easily one of the best jobs in the world. Get paid to fly around to world so see everything great about the countries and eat their best foods. How can anyone not be jealous of this guy?! I love this show. Seeing how much food differs from culture to culture is amazing. I think food varies so much because of the access to food varies on where they are in the world. In my video Andrew is in the Philippians and I have to say their food looks awesome. Even the ice cream that he doesn't care for looks amazing to me. The flavor is yams and cheese. I have to believe that yams and cheese is something that has been a common food in these parts for years, so why not make a frozen version of them.

Globalization effects food because it introduces new tastes to lands where it was never possible. Globalization as a whole has turned individual culture into something of the past. It of course brings new and exciting ideas but it definitely diminishes certain things.

Blog 9

Carlos Slim Helu! I know what most of you are thinking, "Who's this guy?" Well readers, he is the new richest man in the world. Not only that, he's from Mexico. Move over Bill Gates Calros Slim is here.

I don't know about you, but I had never heard of Carlos Slim and I probably would have thought of a baseball player if I would have heard his name. Another shocking thing to me (and most people I've read comments of) is the fact that he is from the developing country, Mexico. Carlos Slim is a Mexican engineer, businessman and philanthropist largely focused on the telecommunications industry. He made the majority of his billions investing and owning major Telephone corporations in Mexico and a lot of Latin America.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the newest richest man in the world, at a whopping 53.5 Billion... CAAAAAARLOS SLIIIM

Blog 8

I picked this video, because natural disasters are a part of life, and being that tornado season is now coming up fast in Nebraska, I felt this would be a very fitting video. Tornadoes have torn the Midwest apart since long before anyone ever dreamt of naming a town Seward in this empty area we call Nebraska. Tornadoes, like any natural disasters, are bound to happen and when they do, look out! These harsh attacks from mother nature will tear apart anything in their way! I feel like natural disasters help dictate where people inhabit regions of any part of the world. No matter where you go, you will see some sort of natural disaster but all you can do is prepare and look at natures beautiful fury. It's something pretty amazing, considering is nothing more than hot wind and cold wind colliding

Blog 7

Something that has always caught my interest is the 7 wonders of the ancient world. In particular I love the Great Pyramid. It's located in Giza in Egypt and is the largest and oldest pyramid in the region. This ancient colossus stands just short of 490 feet, and truly is one of the greatest things man built in the ancient times. It has always been an interest of mine due to sheer amazement. I've wondered many times how man, with much similar technology, could have created something so large and amazing. This creation was the largest man made thing for almost 3,900 years and was only recently over taken with the rush of skyscrapers. It was created for Pharaoh Cheops as a tomb for his body when he died. He and his wife are believed to have been buried within with a large tomb of their belongings. This amazing building has been one of man's great accomplishments and has been a symbol for Egypt for thousands of years. Truly something great! I hope to visit it someday, along with the other standing 7 wonders of the world.

Blog 4

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,290337,00.html?sPage=fnc/world/americas

This article is about Hugo Chavez, the "President" of Venezuela, and ever increasing authoritarianism as President. Hugo Chavez was elected president in 1998 by a vote and has in fact increased the citizen's rights since being elected. Yet he still holds a strong hold on the government and doesn't look to be letting go anytime soon. He was a known ally of Fidel Castro, the former leader of communist Cuba. According to this article Chavez leads with fierce Anti-American Propaganda. "'The CIA is everywhere,' said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that U.S. President George W. Bush could order him killed." The article later states that the U.S. has banned assassinations since 1970.
The main focus of this article is the lack of freedom of speech. President Chavez has been forcing those who speak out against his views publically. This type of action is to be expected of such a controlling leader. He was quoted in the article as steering the country into a "21st century social government." This type of government is similar to the Communistic Government of Cuba which the U.S. Government has been fighting for decades.

Blog 3

I chose my first map to be a representation of the amount of armed troops in action from the time of 1945-2004. This immediately caught my eyes because war is such an influential part of society.



Some things in particular caught my eye. India having so many people at war caught my eye and a lot of southeast Asia being loaded with armed troops. I understand there were two wars during the period check but I never realized how many troops were in actions in those wars. Also a lot of Africa and South America are very skinny, and Australia is almost completely gone. It seems amazing to me that while the majority of the world seems to be in wars that three continents can be almost completely free of war for a 50+ year period. This thought process could be from the fact that I grew up in America, where we have had almost constant conflict and war due to the battle against communism.




The next map I chose has to do with another very important thing in society, religion. I also included a pie chart showing different religions from the world to help clarify which religion is what.
I think its very interesting how much the population effects the "bloating" of certain countries. For example, India is huge. Now some would say that is due to the massive population in India, but if that is the case then why would the number two and number three countries in population, China and USA, not even compare in size with India? This is of course due to the high amount of variety in the USA of religions and the emphasize on athiesm in China. Either way at first site it really makes you think. Also I'm curious what my two maps say for each other. How many "Holy wars" are still being carried out even in this modern age?

Blog 2

I decided to try and look at the more tropical part of Mexico. I don't know about you, but when I think of Mexico I tend to think the dry desert area of it, so I decided to look at the different physical features of Mexico, specifically the south eastern portion.


While looking at it I noticed that the majority of this part of mexico is very forrested compared to the parts that boarder the U.S. and center of Mexico. In my mind there seems to be two views of the same country. The Yucatan Peninsula and the rest of the Mexico. After viewing this image and flying around the Latin American area I realized how similar the country of Mexico is to the southern area of America.

Blog 1

This video I found on YouTube really brought forward the pain and suffering in Haiti. I feel like in this day and age it's very easy to ignore disasters that don't directly effect us. As Christians I feel like empathy and understanding is very important. This video really made me empathisize with the people in Haiti and have a better idea what they had to go through. I've never been in a situation like this and I hope it never happens but I do believe that it is my duty as a Christian to try to have a better understanding to make a better effort to help.

This is a picture of some Red Cross workers in Haiti. I chose this picture to show not only the complete mess that these people have to deal with, but to show all the help that is being done. A disaster like this should take a worldwide effort to help clean up. Thankfully, from what I've heard and read in the news there has been a lot of help and a lot of donations of money to help clean up this sad disaster.