Iqmal

In the past few classes while playing the game, I learned a few things about the renaissance. One of the things I learnt was that alchemy was very popular back in the renaissance. Even the man Sir Isaac Newton himself was a big fan of alchemy. Did you know his main interest in life was alchemy? Anyway, I also learned that paper money was invented and used in Europe during the Renaissance. Paper money first arrived in Europe in Sweden, in 1661. I also learnt that newspapers were made during the Renaissance. The first paper was in Venice, which was a government paper and came out only once a month. Other cities around Italy started to copy the idea so the Italian Government banned newspapers. But that’s when England started it’s own paper. The last thing I remember is that wristwatches were popularized during this time. I think it started in some war in Africa, where they tied watches to their wrists so they could tell time. Eventually, It arrived Europe but sadly, was only popularized during the 1900’s. These are all the facts (hopefully) that I learnt about the Renaissance the past 2 days while playing the game.

Link to Kristian’s Blog:
http://kristian12.learnerblogs.org/

Link to Article:
http://www.9news.com/news/world/article.aspx?storyid=69623

Link to Picture:
http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/pix/high_river050608.jpg

1. How are your two events connected?

The two events are connected because my article has a bit more of detailed information on the numbers of people that fled their homes and a number of people who are missing. Over a thousand five hundred people fled their homes and 19 Kansas counties are declaring this flood a local disaster emergency. When the flood first broke out, it’s first victim was a small town of Big Lake, which was swept away. The town was populated with about 300 people who are probably dead. People are saying the situation isn’t looking too good for the heavy raining is still continueing. Like I said before, these articles are connected because the one I found is a later update therefore having more information.

2. What did you find interesting about this topic?

I found this topic interesting because it concerns the lives of people in the world, and in order to actually care for these people, you actually have to get into the mind set of the situation. You actually have to say to yourself, what if this happened to me? After seeing all these people having to leave their homes etc., you start to feel sorry for them. So I find the fact that this situation concerns human lives is interesting.

3. What did you like about the initial blog posting?

I like the blog posting because I found the topic interesting, and the article interests me because there isn’t much information yet. The lack of information keeps me guessing so I try to determine what’s going to happen next. So I mainly liked the initial blog posting because I find the topic very serious yet interesting. A suggestion on Kristians next blog posting would probably be to not repeat the same things over and over because it bores the audience.

Think about class today and reflect on the presentations you listened to. Explain with details and specific information what you learned and what you found interesting about the presentations you heard in class.

I thought that a lot of the presentations I listened to were very interesting and detailed which includes dates, occurences, and people. I sort of discovered a pattern that most of the people I learnt about were all very studious and weren’t involved in any kind of battles or wars. The only one flaw I thought a lot of people had was probably not talking loud enough into the speakers when they recorded it. Here are some facts I learnt about the people I heard about:

Johnan Gutenburg:
Was from Germany, and the creator of the printing press. He was one of the very few people who could read and he also wrote books. He has a dream where he wants more people to start to read.

John Calvin:
Was born in Paris, France. His main interest was literature. He wrote 5 book editions with a total of 79 chapters. His father wanted him to be a lawyer but had a deathwish to allow him to be whatever he wanted and religion was also a huge part of his life.

Giovanni Boccacio:
Giovanni’s father had a great influence on him. He had a literary talent and could write and read many things. He wrote a book about people struggling in the medieval times during the Black Death. His impact on the world was that he influenced many people to start reading.

Copernicus:
Was born in Poland. He exceled in mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, and medicine. He began focusing his attention on astronomy when he visited his uncle who was a astronomer. He studied cosmology for about 30 years. His theory (the planets revolve around the sun) was rejected constantly by the church.

Alexandro:
A painter who focused his art toward religion and the church. He had a partner named Filipino Lezi and spent his days and night in a work shop. He was very successful at the peak of his career.

What would you change to improve your interview/presentation if you were to do the assignment again?

If I could redo the assignment, I would probably speak in a deeper voice and with an english accent. I thought my interview was good but the recording was as good as I wanted it to be. In other words, I would just redo the recording part of the project.

John Hawkins was probably one of the most prized men in England. He has contributed much to England. He has given a powerful warship and most importantly, his life. John has been involved in many duties in England but mainly the war against Spain. He has been involved in many situations where he fought the Spanish. The Spanish got tired of the English battling them and decided to start a war. John’s ship was another great contribution, as in 1600, it became the most common trading vessel in Europe. More additional and more detailed information (with dates, occurences, and places etc.) can be found in the interview below:

johnhawkins.mp3

John Hawkins, born in Plymouth, 1532

Links:http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/01/recall.poultry/index.html

What is the issue?

The issue is that farmers in America have been feeding their chickens contaminated pet food from China. The NCC (National Chicken Council) have been running tests and noticed that people who eat this chicken are appearing to remain healthy. FDA officials reported that 6,000 hogs that have been fed the contaminated food has entered the human food supply. Because of this, they have detained all vegetable protein products that are used in both animal and human food that are bought in China for safety.

Who is involved?

NCC- The association that discovered this issue.
Farmers- The people who fed the animals the contaminated food.
FDA- Detained all vegetable protein products bought from China.
China- Sold the contaminated food products.

Who is affected and how?

The farmers are affected because of the proof the NCC has given, they can feed their chicken the contaminated food. The people are affected because they have to worry about eating the chicken. FDA is affected because it is their job to make sure people are eating “clean” food. China is also affected because their selling of vegetable protein products has been detained.

What would I do if I was directly involved?

If I was involved, I would do furthur research to see if the food has any negative side effects on the human diet. I would also encourage the halting of the selling of vegetable protein products in China until more information about the food has been discovered.

To me, I think Henry Ford, the founder of Ford the car company, is a renaissance person. I believe he is like a renaissance person mainly because he devoted himself to the things he loved (like Leonardo Da Vinci and Michealangelo), which was in fact engineering. Ford left his home on the farm at only 16 to study as an apprentice engineer. Henry’s greatest and achieved dream was to create an auto mobile which he did in 1903 when he created the Ford automotor company. His first automobile was named “mobile T” and by 1918, half the cars in america were “mobile T’s”! Like many renaissance men, Henry Fords automobile company is still in use today and his interest and devotion allowed his dream to come true.

http://www.clubfordv8
.com.ar/fordv8/elclub/Henry_Ford_400.jpg
A picture of Henry Ford

Sources: http://www.hfmgv.org/exhibits/hf/

Some information I found out was that there were about 30 new species found when the ice shelf melted,This new find contributed to the 1000 species in Antarctica, but it is said by scientist that the melting of the ice shelf could alter the marine ecosystem. Out of all the 30, I could only find images of 3.

The psychedelic octopus

The Fast-Growing Sea Squirt

Deep-sea sea cucumber

What did you find interesting about this topic?

I found it interesting because I thought that the finding of new species was interesting and I thought that there could have been some weird predator, but anyway, I think that these new creatures are pretty amazing!

What did you like about the initial blog posting?

I mainly liked the topic of new discoveries, but I also thought how negative it was that global warming allowed this new discovery. These are the reasons I liked the blog posting

Sources:http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070225/sc_livescience/strangenewcreaturesfoundinantarctica

Car Bombing in Iraq Kills Dozens

A map of Iraq

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/images/cia-map-iraq.jpg

A U.S. helicopter above the area where the bombing took place

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2007/WORLD/meast/02/24/iraq.main/story.iraq.02.afp.gi.jpg

What is the issue?

A mystery car bombing in Iraq kills at least 39 people and wounded 61 in Habbaniya, Iraq. The weird thing is that the Prime Minister stated that there were “positive results” in the security in Iraq. The bombing took place outside the Sunni mosque, just 40 miles west of Baghdad. Witnesses say that the imam spoke out against extremists.

Who is involved? Who is affected and how?
Well, the citizens of Iraq are definitely involved because they could become the next victims. The security is somehow involved because it’s their job to protect the people of Iraq, the mystery bombers because they are the people who committed the crime, and the government because they are the people who have to deal with the problem.

What would I do if I was Directly Involved?

If I was involved directly, I would tighten the security in the more local areas like the market, the mosque, schools etc. I would also allow security to check cars and people upon entry into a location.

Well, nowadays people are mostly concerned about their financial problems rather than risking their lives for something they believe in.. But there are some people who put their life on the line such as the police. The police have pride for their work and their main goal is to protect the people.

I don’t know if you can count the people who fight to serve their country but there are also soldiers. Brave soldiers who go to war to serve their country and sometimes fight for what they believe in and soldiers who secure safety for their country. The prime minister or president of a country could be a person as well. They risk their lives to shape their country and make it a better place while knowing the risks (mainly assassination attempts).

These are the only people I can think of that put their lives on the line for something they believe in.

I think that religion was very important to the people of the middle ages. There were obviously people that were more religious than others.

Take monks for example, they give up a normal life and dedicate themselves to God and spend their whole lives doing good deeds such as devout prayers, helping the sick, farming, baking and copying the manuscript of the Bible. The monks also spent a lot of time doing church service and praying in the monastery where they lived their whole life.

There were also people called friars. Friars are people who travel and tell people about God. They normally live off other people and make do with what they have.

Another thing that shows religion was important was the church. The church was so important, it was the focal point of every village and everyone had to pay a tenth of their earnings to the church which was called a tithe.

Everyone also had to follow the Holy Order, which was code of religion the people had to live by. If you did not follow the code, you would be excommunicated.

Pilgrimages were also performed. Pilgrimages are journeys to a Holy Land.

Last but not least, the Crusades. The crusades were journeys the Christians took to Jerusalem, the holy land, to try and defeat the Muslims.

This is all I can tell you about the importance of religion in the Middle Ages. I hope you learnt something!