Bear Letter

3 Questions about Advertising

1. I think that advertising influences the consumption in a big way. Advertising persuades people to buy more stuff. If we buy more stuff, and use a lot of stuff we consume a lot of energy to make all that stuff and therefore we consume a lot of natural resources, especially fossil fuels to make all that. And by using fossil fuels, we release CO2 which speeds up the effect of global warming. Advertising encourages people to buy a lot of things, which influences us in a negative way.

2. I think people aren't aware of sustainability and consumption. People can find out about those things during advertisements, when they will present positive and negative things about their product. I think that at schools, teachers should discuss about sustainability issues so that the younger generations would know about those things.

3. I think that it influences our choices of buying the product in a big way. If we would know the negative factors about their product, we would not probably buy it. I am sure that the people who make advertisements know that, and that is why they only say good things about their product, not bad. Finally, if they would tell us the negative things the product has on the environment, I think people would stop eating hamburgers and using fossil fuels and move on to more environmental-friendly habits like using renewable energy.

Examples of Sustainable Development

Corporations:
  1. Interface Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia in the USA
  2. Herman Miller Inc. of Michigan, USA
  3. Nike has its Reuse-A-Shoe programme

Eco-industrial parks:
  1.eco-industrial park at Kalundborg in Denmark

Sustainable cities:
  1. Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain

Ecological villages:
  1.Los Angeles Eco-Village Project
  2.Solheimer in Iceland
  3.Findhorn in Scotland
  4.Crystal Waters in Australia
  5.Lebensgarten in Germany

Fleeing Journey

My name’s Alice Hamidi and I migrated from Afghanistan to Czech Republic with my parents and my younger brother Adam. Bombs and guns were everywhere all over Afghanistan, making lives of people very hard and unsafe. War had also wasted food and water resources which caused stealing and fights for survival. My family was Christian, however the government didn’t like that and forced us to follow Islam which I didn’t like a bit. My family and I became refugees and decided to make an escape plan to Czech Republic because it is very small and the government would never thought that we were hiding in Czech Republic. It also had a good climate, was free from most of natural disasters and had better opportunities for my parents and me.

My dad’s escape plan worked and my family at last immigrated to Czech Republic. When we arrived in Prague we were frequently examined by security guards and we had to take many medical tests. I guess they were afraid we would bring new diseases to Czech. Finally my parents got better paying jobs and I could to go to school. It was also nice to see many people with different cultures from me. However, my family and I faced many challenges like learning Czech which was immensely hard, especially the grammar. I had to take a lot of extra classes to learn Czech. Many people also avoided me because of my skin color and I had really hard time finding friends. I didn’t understand why they discriminated me since it’s beneficial for a country to have a diverse society. I also hope that there won’t be any family conflicts between my nuclear and extended family because we could escape to Czech Republic and they couldn’t.

Message From Mother Nature

1. Scientists debate if global warming/climate change is the reason to more frequent and intense weather extremes.
2. Heat wave: time when it is really hot in a big area
    Reluctant: unwilling or afraid
    Variability: being able to change
    Skeptics: people who ask questions in order to make sure something is factual and valid
3. Weather: the temperature the earth
    Climate: the weather over a long period of time
4. Heat wave, monsoon rain, flooding, snowstorm, rainstorms, droughts.
5. Once in Czech, it was really, really cold (around -20 degrees Celsius) during winter. It was so cold that the school had to be closed. I couldn't go outside to play. And even inside the house, it was quite cold. Also, there were a lot of car accidents on the street because the road was very slippery. There were also a lot of snowstorms which made hard for cars and people to move from place to place. It started from November and ended in the end of march, which is a lot longer than usual.
6. Perception: the understanding of something
7. I think that climate is really bad for the whole world. It makes very dry places even drier, and very wet places even wetter. It might also cause a lot of weather extremes, which would result in migration of people, and the reduction of growing food. I think that global warming is the main reason for such a drastic climate change.













   

   

David Star Land

Probably the most interesting region in David Star Land is DuDu Village. DuDu Village is one the four regions located in David Star Land. People follow Davidism, a religion in David Star Land. DuDu Village's leader is called Fillip who is a member of the United, the four people who control the country. In DuDu Village, there is only one type of human kind called the Pacifier Kind which is only located in the DuDu Village.

In DuDu Village, there are people who need pacifiers to live. Their pacifiers can only be made from Jasmine flowers, found only in Shortville. As a result, Shortville is DuDu Village’s main trading region. They trade fish, food and crops for Jasmine flowers. DuDu Village also trade with T.T. Kingdom, because T.T. Kingdom needs fish for their monthly ritual. DuDu Village trades fish for crops and food. During  trade, a lot of ideas exchange, people move and rarely, people marry from different regions. However, language maintains the same and doesn’t mix.

One of the most interesting sites in DuDu village is an area called the Nigel’s Waterfalls, located 90 degrees north 150 degrees west. Nigel Waterfalls is hidden inside a cave, and is only accessible when going underwater and swimming through a hole in the middle of the cave. Nigel Waterfalls is a paradise for the DuDu Village, and contains a little, and only land available in DuDu village. There aren’t any animals, and is used for relaxation.

DuDu Village is made up of only water and a little land located in Nigel’s Waterfalls. The water is made of saliva. Because there is only water everywhere, people use boats to transport. They also build little cottages on water. Also, since they live on water, best swimmers and fishers in the world are born in the region. Fishers are really important in the country because they catch fish to trade with Shortville and T.T. Kingdom. Because people settle in this area, no sharks, alligators and big sea animals live in the region.

People in DuDu Village don’t have any roads because their houses float everywhere, so they don’t need them. The also don’t have any public buildings it’s impossible for the people to build big buildings on water. Therefore, people build small buildings underwater out sand. All public buildings like hospital, school and shops are built underwater. The land is only water, so there aren’t any places except Nigel’s Waterfalls.

Chapter 1 Study Guide

Types of Maps:
-physical: physical features e.g. land
-political: countries
-thematic: theme e.g. resources

5 Themes of Geography:
-location: based on longitude and latitude
-place: describes human & environment characteristics
-movement: ideas, people, goods move e.g. trade
-region: similar to place but bigger
-human & environment interactions: how people adapt the environment, vice versa

6 Essential Elements: help geographers understand people, environment, places, and earth
-spatial terms: study of locations of places – helps geographers understand physical and human patterns
-places and regions: comparison of places’ characteristics
-physical systems: the study of changes in earth’s surface - shows why people choose to in certain places
-human systems: study of human settlement patterns - helps to explain human life styles and interactions
-environment and society: study of how people use interact with the environment and how they use their resources
-uses of geography: study of patterns and processes in the world – helps to understand past and future plans

What is culture? :
1. History, tradition, religion, government, costumes, education, trade, environment, nature, everything around us, etc.

Additional Vocabulary:
- geography – study of people, places, and environments
- environment – physical surroundings of a location
- spatial – referring to where a place is located and its physical relationship to other places, people, or environments
- surveyor – a person who measures the land
- remote sensing – obtaining information about a site by using an instrument that is not physically in contact with the site
- Landsat – a series of information – gathering satellites that orbit above earth
- global positioning system (GPS) – a system that uses a network of earth – obtaining satellites to pinpoint location
- geographic information system (GIS) – a computer – or internet – based mapping technology
- database – a collection of information that can be analyzed


Geography’s Jobs:
- location analyst – a person who studies an area to find the best location for a client
- urban planner – a person who creates plans for developing and improving parts of a city
- climatologist – a geographer who studies climates
- geomorphology – the study of how the shape of the earth changes
- cartographer – a geographer who creates maps

How to read a map:
1. Compass, scale, legend, resources, elevation

Tools
Global positioning system (GPS)
Geographic information system (GIS)
Remote sensing
Map
Irrigation system

Learning Experience

Through this project, I have learned a lot of things. First, I had the chance to see a lot of pictures of myself, as well as my family and extended family. I was really surprised how I have changed from when I was a child until now. A lot of those pictures brought a lot of good memories, and some of them were really funny to look at. Now, I understand why it's very important for my parents to take a lot of pictures of me, and my family. I guess now, I will enjoy taking pictures more than in the past. I have also learned how to cook ( but  I am not an expert). I haven't cooked before - ever! I haven't made instant noodles, or rice, or anything!. That's because I don't want to, and because my mom won't let me. But this project gave me a motivation, as well as a reason for my mom to let me cook. I decided to cook my favorite dessert, which is apple strudel. It was really hard to cook it, and finding the ingredients as well as good recipes on the internet was also hard. But, eventually I found an easy-to-understand recipe and my mom was able to find all the ingredients. Because of this project, I think I am going to start cooking this dessert every two weeks, because I just love apple strudel that much!

Not only I have learned things about myself through this project, but I have also learned some interesting facts about other people's cultures, as well as people's personalities. One thing that was interesting was Lisa's family's conversion from Buddhism to Christianity. I found it very interesting and very ironic because those two religions are nearly the opposite, so how's that possible for a family to gain faith to something completely different - I guess I will never know the answer. The next thing that was interesting was Sarah's Korean culture. I had never known that people had to bow to a certain degree depending on their age. I find it really amazing, because in American and Czech Republic don't do that at all. I especially find it amazing because I just cannot imagine old people bowing at 135 degrees when their back is already bad. I really wonder how they do that. I have gained a lot of learning experience through this project, and I am positive that this knowledge is not just going to be helpful in my future assignments, but also in my life.

Wednesday's Homework

I have chosen Ostrava (a Czech city) to be my place. The climate depends on the season it is, for example in the spring it's warm, in the summer it's hot, in autumn it's cool and in winter it's cold. Ostrava is an inner city, which means there aren't any seas or oceans surrounding it. It is very near the Polish and Slovakian borders, so it's easy for the people to travel to Slovakia or Poland. There aren't any mountains in Ostrava and the land is also very suitable for mining coal. For an urban city, there is quite a lot of nature in Ostrava.

Because the land in Ostrava is really good for coal mining, people have been building a lot of coal mining industries however, coal mining is one of the many reasons why Ostrava is polluted (but not like Ho Chi Minh City). Ostrava isn't surrounded by an sea or ocean, therefore people in Ostrava don't eat sea animals like crabs, shrimps or even fish at all (except for Christmas, people eat fish).

All about me.

Like my blog says, I'm David and 13 years old. Even though I am Vietnamese, I was born in Czech Republic and lived there for 10 years, making me practically Czech. I speak Czech and I don't speak Vietnamese making it a little harder to communicate with my parents since their native language is Vietnamese and not Czech. I like to play dodge ball and kickball and I like to study languages. In fact, I speak around 4 languages: English, Czech, a little Vietnamese, a little Chinese, and very little Spanish. I have no brothers, but 3 sisters, which could be very frustrating at certain times. My favorite subjects are English and Social Studies (not history) because we get to do a lot of discussions, and I like speaking. Last year, Social Studies was kind of boring (because we learned about history) so I hope that this year, Social Studies is going to be a lot more fun.