Monday, November 24, 2008

Survival- Early Human vs. Civilazation- kuala Lumpur

Our class in Humanities discussed about how our modern day tools/ resourses are different from the early men tools/ resourses. We made a chart called the "Wall of Thoughts" showing general categories for early men and Kuala Lumpur, with specific examples.
Here is the "Wall of Thoughts"
The Wall of Thoughts

Categories

Kuala Lumpur

Early Man

Food

  • Cold Storage
  • Fruit from backyard
  • Buy ingredients/make food
  • Berries and leaves
  • Hunt
  • Raw meat
  • Plants that aren’t poisonous
  • insects

Water

  • Bottled water
  • Filtered water
  • Bought water
  • Fountains, ice
  • boxes
  • Rivers
  • Lakes
  • Dig holes in ground
  • Streams, rain

Nature/Environment

  • We ruin it-global warming
  • Trees
  • Use fruits and edible plants
  • Tools
  • Food water
  • metal
  • Edible plants
  • Oxygen
  • Trees
  • Rivers
  • Caves
  • Sticks
  • Animal bones

Resources

  • Tools
  • Oil, Steal, Metal
  • Bricks, Plastic
  • Rubber
  • Lead
  • Tin copper gold
  • Wood
  • stones
  • fire
  • rocks
  • pot for cooking
  • bones
  • fire, rocks, wood
  • mud
  • plants

Shelters/buildings

  • apartment, house
  • condos
  • supermarkets
  • cabins, huts, shopping malls
  • caves, huts, simple huts
  • lean-to
  • trees and branches

Technology

  • computers
  • protection equipment
  • tools
  • factories
  • electricity
  • television
  • stairs, tables, oven, clothes, safes, refining
  • rocks, spears
  • hand axes
  • fire
  • hammer
  • bones, stones

Education

  • schools, tutors, jobs, parents, others,
  • “Does a learning environment have to be in a school?”
  • Like Mafatu, knew about nature
  • learning from elders
  • taught each other
  • learned from experience
  • hunting
  • making tools

Communication

  • languages, road signs
  • hand movements, gestures
  • talking
  • writing, reading
  • internet
  • books, movies, video, letters, email, body language, IMing
  • cave paintings
  • hand gestures
  • sign language
  • grunts noises

Transportation

  • bicycles, trucks, cars, etc.
  • bikes, horse, carriage
  • walking, jogging, trains
  • wheelchairs, cable cars, skateboards, rollerblades, speedboats, sailboats, surfboards
  • feet
  • walking, running

Economy

  • stock markets
  • government
  • community/cooperation
  • tourism/traveling
  • money, currencies
  • jobs
  • bartering
  • trading
  • jobs

Government/Politics

  • court, jury
  • people in charge
  • minister, president, king
  • mayor
  • placed ruler vs. elected ruler
  • teamwork
  • Law
  • chief
  • no designed ruler
  • families
  • teamwork

Belief System

  • Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, religions
  • Believing in yourself, not giving up
  • Consequences
  • Ceremonies
  • They did not have religions

Entertainment/Art

  • Games, tv, internet, movies, clothing, amusement parks, cinemas,
  • Music, artists, museums, books,
  • Dancing
  • Hunting ceremonies
  • Making necklaces, drawing on walls
  • Jewelry
  • Cave paintings

Culture

  • way of cooking, eating, dancing
  • dances, ceremonies
  • way of life
  • anthem
  • accessories
  • different values, food
  • dancing, cooking, hunt animals
  • celebrate for dead people
  • tribes

I thought that the Wall of Thoughts was a great way to express what you felt. Another reason I like the Wall of Thoughts is that once youu gather all the info/ opinions you can start commenting on others thoughts, and soon it becomes a huge conversation with everyone sharing their thoughts. In our conversation, a lot of my peers came up with great things such as my peer Krithika said that we have such an easy life compared to the early humans. For ex. if you were to have fish for dinner, and you were an early man you would have to go to the river, kill a fish, come back, clean it ect. As for us- modern humans, I can just go to the market, buy fish, come home, and cook it... in moments you have dinner. I added on to that comment by saying that our lifes have gotten a tiny bit harder in a way because back then the early humans didn't catch desieses from eating something like termites. as for now you could almost die. So ny final statement was that as we adapted to new things and we invented, we put less, and less effort into something like having fish for dinner. So in return our body kind of became more vulnerable to simple things like even fever.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Civilized Or Not?

There are a lot of civilized places in the world. One of them is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Now why is Kuala Lumpur civilized?
What does it have that makes it a civilized city

Some major/general things that K.L has are:
Food- Restuarants, Food..
Water
Buildings- KLCC, SPCA, Hotels, Houses, Apartments ect
Education-Schools, Teachers, Staff, Colleges, Universities, Students ect
Jobs- Engineers, Doctors, Chefs, Teachers, Arcitects, Managers ect.
Technology- Computers, Wii, i-pods, Cell phones, You tube ect
Transportation- Cars, Trains, Buses, Trucks. Monorails ect
Culture- Batik, Roti Chanai, ect
Economy- Currency, Government, Bartering ect
Cooperation/Communication- Jobs, Schools, Projects ect.

Of course all cities and countries have the basic things like food, water, clothing, and homes.
Kuala Lumpur also has other major things that make it civilized are education, technology, transportation, buildings, culture, and jobs. I think this because education can relate to almost all of these things. For example, to have buildings you need mechanics, and architects who need to learn how to do certain things from school. Another example is that we would need experienced engineers who have learned how to use, and fix computers to have technology. Education can also mean learning new things like how to ride a bike, or even learning how to use a Mac computer. Communication and cooperation is also important because you should be able to discuss things, and cooperate to work together and do jobs because without communicaton and cooperation you wouldn't be able to run a restuarant, have a strong government, or huge projects.













Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Appropriate Blogging!!

Appropriate blogging is very important when you have a blog. You have to be careful of what you publish because everyone can see what you write. It's really important that you don't give out too much info of yourself because people can "stalk" you and find out about where you live, how to contact you and other things that I bet no one wants other people to know. I think that when you publish things you should write, knowing that the world is judging you according to what you put on your blog. I personally recommend that you should imagine that whatever you publish, is somthing that you would write to your parents. I recommend this because if you are writing somthing it would obviously be appropriate, and you wouldn't write personal details such as address, e-mail address, phone number and ect because you know that they already know this much about you.

These are some basic things you want to do:
  • Don't give personal info such as phone mumbers, e-mail address, pictures that look a lot like you, home address, school, whloe name like John Smith or somthing.
  • Write appropriate things.
  • Remember you have the whole world as your audience.
  • Write or show things that reprsent your personality (Be yourself)
  • Have Fun!!!

Monday, November 10, 2008

SPCA (Society Of Preventing Cruelty to Animals)

Today in school a worker from the SPCA came to talk to us about what happens in the SPCA. She told us about the process of neutering animals, why they nurture animals in the first place, problems they are facing, and the process of adoption. I have to admit I thought that I knew a lot about the SPCA but there was a lot more then just turning in stray animals, and then the adoption process.

At the end of the presentation I learned about the pros and cons about SPCA. I thought that it was really awesome how all these stray animals had a chance of finding a home. I didn't really like the thought of neutering though, although I knew it was for the best. You might be wondering what is neutering? Well, neutering is when animals are basically given "an operation" to prevent the animal to mate and reproduce. I kind of thought that it was unfair to the animal mother who couldn't have children now. Another pro about SPCA is that everyone can help raise money to help the animals. I was so shocked when I heard that almost 75% of the animals were put to sleep because not many people adopted them and the SPCA didn't have enough space. I also thought it was really sad that a lot of people abuse, and "neglect" their pets. Some owners are very irresponsible. Some owners never let their dog out of their cage, don't feed the dog well enough, and some even hurt them. (I don't even want to think about it!)

Overall, I think that its great that there is the SPCA to help the stray animals in this world. But I still think that everyone should chip in to help all stray animals. After this presentation I felt like helping these animals by doing what ever I can to make a change. WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? -Viddy

Friday, November 7, 2008

I am...

I am me
I am a flower growing on a tree
I am a cousin and a sister
with a very annoying brother
I am summer, fall, winter, and spring
I am as precious as a diamond ring
I am a reader
I am a writer
I am an ice-cream cone on a hot summer day
I am special in every way
And most importantly...
I am me

Thursday, November 6, 2008

"Call It Courage"

What is Call It Courage?
"Call It Courage" is a book by Armstrong Sperry. Call It Courage is about a twelve year old boy named Mafatu. Mafatu lives in Hikueru and is tired of people calling him a coward because he is afraid of the sea. To prove himself he sets out on the sea. During the journey on the sea he faces a huge storm that leads him to a inhabited island. Now Mafatu has to adapt to the his surroundings to survive. This wasn't very hard for Mafatu to do this because in Hikueru he had a job of making canoes, knifes, nets, etc. After a long time he finally returns to Hikueru, and shows himself to his father. Now his father is very proud of his son, as of before he was ashamed of him.

I thought that this book was good and bad. I thought it was bad because at the beginning, the book was confusing because the author used some vocabulary that I didn't know the meaning of. I thought it was good because it had a little adventure, and it was interesting to discuss about.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

All About Me!

My name is Vidya, and I go to an International School in Malaysia. I am from India.
I like to play sports, read, hang out with my friends, draw, and go on the computer. My favorite book is "A Wrinkle In Time." Some of the sports I play are tennis, swimming, and soccer. I think of myself as a traveler. I have been to Indonesia, America, Laos, India, and now I am in Malaysia.