30 January, 2019 Class

Again, we didn't have school today. Apparently, it will snow more today at around 1 PM. You know, I'm kind of getting tired of not going to school.

29 January, 2019 Class

Due to weather conditions, nobody went to school today. Or at least nobody should have. I don't know if we are required to write a blog, but just in case I did.

28 January, 2019 Class

Today, we had a little discussion about why--even though there are civilized places in Papua New Guinea--there are some people in the rainforest area and such that still are working hard to survive off of nature since Jared Diamond did not go over that with great detail, leaving us hanging. Honestly, I'm already getting tired of Guns, Germs and Steel since I have already watched the video and am doing so again every class since I came to school.

Here are some other notes from the video:

• Out of all of the large, domesticated animals
• None came from:
• Papua New Guinea,
• North America, or
• Sub-Saharan Africa.
• One came from:
• South America (the llama).
• And the remaining thirteen came from:
• Asia, 
• Northern Africa, and
• Europe.
• (Cows, pigs, sheep, and goats came from the Middle East, which is now dubbed as the Fertile Crescent).

24 January, 2019 Class

Today, on my mother's birthday, I had my first Honors Western Civilization class. Exciting (especially since it should boost up my GPA)! Even though I had already watched the entirety of the Guns, Germs and Steel video before going to the class, I had to watch it again along with the class. I got some extra notes that I thought would be important.
  After the Middle East started farming wheat and barley, people in other places also started farming.

• China started planting rice.
• The Americas planted corn, squash, and beans.
• Africa planted sorghum--a type of grain--, millet, and yams.

Although farming brought great prosperity to all of the above places, it was Papua New Guinea's downfall.

Goats and sheep were the first animals domesticated. Then, big animals such as pigs, cows, and horses followed behind.

Between the 138 animals above a hundred pounds which could be domesticated, 14 were actually successfully domesticated:

• Goats,
• Sheep,
• Pigs,
• Cows,
• Horses,
• Donkeys,
• Bactrian camels,
• Arabian camels,
• Water buffalo,
• Llamas,
• Reindeer,
• Yaks,
• Mithuns, and
• Valley cows.

23 January, 2019 Class

So, I kind of forgot to check if I had Western Civ. today and that is why my blog is a little late. Anyway, I was not in class because today is the day that I arrived at MD. I just got to my house about 10 minutes ago and was about to sleep, but then I remembered about my blog.

Classwork #1

Conquistadores have led the way for Europeans to conquer the world with guns, germs (to harm opponents), and steel (to fabricate things such as swords).
After cracking the code, nations have used the method to conquer (guns, germs, and steel). Having great military power, lethal microbes, and advanced technology is the way of the conquering method.

"How did the modern day societies develop these advantages?" and "Why did the world become so uneven?" are questions that Profesor Jared Diamond has tried to answer.
Episode 1 out of 3: Out of Eden
Set in Papua New Guinea.
Jared Diamond is a profesor at the UCLA university in Los Angeles, California. He is a biologist who specializes in human physiologist, but his real passion is birdwatching.

The population in Papua New Guinea is one who has remained unchanged over a period of 40 thousand years until the present time. Its population is culturally diverse and adaptable. So, why is its population so poor and not as advanced.

In order to answer the previous question, Profesor Diamond did profuse amounts of investigating.  He concluded that all advanced civilizations had things in common:

• Advanced technology,
• Large populations, and
• Well, organized workforce.

But, to understand the question, he had to go back to prehistory, 13 thousand years back, when all societies lived relatively equally. They were hunter-gatherers that made up small, mobile groups. Fast forward into the future, 12.5 thousand years ago, global temperatures dropped, making the world colder and drier. With that, the Middle East's environment had collapsed (herds died off, along with trees and plants). The drought lasted a thousand years, if not more.

Ian Kuijt  is a Canadian archaeologist  who specializes in the Stone age history.

He was located in the Jordan valley near the Dead Sea, a place named Dhra. In there, they found what they think is the world's first granulary.

11.5 thousand years ago--around the end of the drought--instead of staying mobile, people started growing crops, which is known as domestication. Domestication is the way that crops are used and changed under human influence. After the Middle East, the following locations followed in the Middle East's steps:

• China,
• The Americas,
• Africa, and
• The Highlands of New Guinea (not good).

Crops in New Guinea are very hard to cultivate because they rot quickly, are low in protein, and have to be planted one by one. Basically, profesor Diamond deducts that the inequalities that there are between countries exist due to the crops that we eat.

Animal domestication came around at a time where villages were composed of 40 to 50 people (9 thousand years ago). Animals were used for their milk (food) and hair and fur (extra warmth).

Animals eat food which they then poop. And, that poop is used as fertilizer for crops that both them and humans eat.

Inventions like the plow needed the use of big animals, such as horse and oxen. Since the inventions, humans have needed to take control over big animals. Especially those for which the following apply:

• If humans control the leader, humans can control the entire herd/flock.
• Are social animals (they stay in groups with males, females, and offspring).
• Get along with humans.
• Start procreating at the age of one or two years, with one to two offspring per year.

There are 148 species of large (100+ pounds), wild animals and only 14 have been domesticated. Of those 14, 1 came from South America, and the other 13 from Asia, North Africa, and Europe. With 4 from the Middle East, otherwise known as the Fertile Crescent.

After a thousand years, people form the Middle East left because the land was so over exploited that it could not sustain life. So, the Middle East crops and animals were spread over the East and West at around the same  difference in longitude (close to same land conditions).

Basically, what the video tried to tell is that: when there is a surplus of food produced from all the people in a population, some of the people can deviate from food scavenging or farming and go about doing other jobs (e.g. blacksmith). People in Papua New Guinea did not have enough people to afford to deviate from getting food, that's the reason why they are not as advanced.

A country's development is a result of the raw materials at disposal. Not lack of ingenuity, but of geographical luck.