Last Day of Human Geo

          Today is our last day of Human Geo. I liked a lot about the class. First of all, the teacher was FRICKIN AWESOME and made class entertaining all the time. He took the most boring topics and made them bearable to sit through. As far as the class itself, it had it's good and bad moments. Some topics were just, "Ugghhhh" while others were extremely interesting and fun to talk about. Over all, Mr. Shicks Human Geo class was a very great one!

Guns, Germs and Steel

          Today in class, we watched a film called Guns, Germs and Steal. In this film, a many named Jared Diamond, a professor from UCLA, had someone ask him, "Why do newer civilizations have more cargo and the older ones don't." Diamond's theory is a good one. Papa New Guiney didn't thrive because of their farming. They didn't have the animals to pull carts or plows and overall had a very old fashion way of doing things. Other civilizations were coming up with new ways to farm and they just stayed the same. Naturally, they're going to be the ones left behind. But, it isn't a terrible thing. Yes, they won't have the luxuries of city life like we do, but they seem content with their lifestyle. Hunting and gathering seems to be a good things for them. They have the potential to start towns and cities, but just don't do it.

Urban Geography

          Today in class, we started a new section called Urban Geo. This talks about the first civilizations of the world. The word "Urban" refers to the build up of cities. There are 5 Hearths of Urbanization. They are Mesopotamia, the Nile River Valley, the Indus River Valley, the Huang He and Wei River Valley and Mesoamerica. The Greek cities were very urbanized for their time. They had a network of more than 500 cities and towns. The Roman cities were greatly influenced by the Greek cities. Their cities and towns were linked together with hundreds of miles of roads.