Influenva Epidemic of 1918

The influenza pandemic of 1918 lasted from January 1918 to December 1920. This was an unusually deadly pandemic, infecting 500 million people around the globe, killing 50 to 100 million of them. The event killed 3% of the worlds population, making it one of the most deadly events in human history.  Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast the 1918 pandemic predominantly killed previously healthy young adults. A large factor in the worldwide occurrence of this flu was increased travel. Modern transportation systems made it easier for soldiers, sailors, and civilian travelers to spread the disease.

Japan's Population Decline

Japan is facing a major crisis. Japan's total fertility rate is just 1.3. Soon, there will not be enough youth to take of the elderly. The four largest islands (Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shitoku) account for 97% of its population. In the other islands, there is not many youth because women are deciding not to have children. The 2014 estimated population of 127 million represents a major decline from its official 2010 census. Slowing population growth and an aging population are creating more than a headache for the island nation, as this problem is shrinking its pool of taxable citizens, causing the social welfare costs to skyrocket, and has led to Japan becoming the most indebted industrial nation with public debt that is double its economy.

Women's Social Role in Ancient India

In ancient India the position of women does not appear to have been a very happy one. Generally women have been looked upon as being inferior to men. And, at times they were considered as being on the same level as the Sudras, the lowest of the four castes. Their freedom was extremely limited. Even as a wife the life of a woman was often miserable. This was specially so when she had the misfortune of being a co-wife. Jealousies and conflicts between co-wives were a common feature in ancient Indian society. The widow's plight was still worse. Normally, a widow was not allowed to remarry. It is said that a widow had to kill herself by jumping into the funeral pyre of her husband. Generally a woman was considered a burden on the family because the males had to bear the responsibility of looking after her.

Nova- World in Balance

Today in class we watched a video on the people paradox. Japan's population is expected to decline by 50% within the next 100 years. Japan is going through an epidemic in which there will be less and less youth and more and more elderly in the population. Soon, there will not be enough people to take care of the elderly and to run the economy successfully. India will soon pass China as the most populous nation and one of India's providence, Uttar Pradesch, would be the 5th most populous nation in the world, at only roughly the size of Colorado's. The population could double in just 3 years with a TFR that has decreased from 6 to 3.  

Kiva

Kiva is a non profit organization that helps out businesses and students in 82 developing nations. Since 2005, Kiva has crowd-funded more than 1 million loans, totaling more than a half a billion dollars, at a repayment rate of 99 percent. As of November 2013, Kiva was raising about $1 million every three days. The Kiva platform has attracted a community of more than 1 million lenders from around the world. Kiva itself does not collect any interest on the loans it facilitates and Kiva lenders do not make interest on loans. Kiva is purely supported by grants, loans, and donations from its users, corporations, and national institutions. Kiva is headquartered in San Francisco, California.As of May 5, 2015, Kiva has distributed $703,075,350 in loans from 1,286,412 lenders to 1,627,874 borrowers. A total of 878,025 loans have been funded through Kiva. The average loan size is $416.40, and the average Kiva user has made 9.94 loans. Kiva's current repayment rate for all its partners is 98.72%. According to Alexa: The Web Information Company, Kiva's website ranks in the top 12,000 of all websites worldwide and ranks in the top 5,000 for the United States.

Comparing the U.S. to Other Countries

Poland
I would be

• 71% less likely to go to prison
• 79% less likely to be murdered
• 41% more likely to be unemployed

Syria
I would

• make 90% less money
• be 42% less likely to be murdered
• consume 76% less oil

Ethiopia
I would be

• 9 times more likely to die in infancy
• 2.4 times more likely to be unemployed
• 2.1times more likely to be murdered

Second Test

I just took the second test on globalization and population and it was not at all like the first. The first test was easy, and every question was directly from the notes. I was able to tell what would be on the test just from my notes. On this test, there were facts that did not seem like test questions, like what the population of the United States is, that showed up on the test. There were also questions like, which of these countries has the highest GDP per capita, or what does per capita mean. For studying, I studied the main terms from the unit and just glanced at the facts from the CIA world fact book. I was very comfortable with the world fact book and the questions from the fact book could be found on only 3 different country’s pages so the first part was very easy.

Nobel Economics Prize Winner

Princeton University’s Angus Deaton won the Nobel Prize in economics Monday for refining and exploring what it really means to be in poverty. Deaton won $975,000 for his works at 69 years of age. Deaton was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and holds U.S. and British dual citizenship. According to nydaily news, the prize committee said Deaton’s work revolves around three central questions: How do consumers distribute their spending among different goods; how much of society's income is spent and how much is saved; and how do we best measure and analyze welfare and poverty? “Deaton found that there were a lot more poor people in rural areas of India than previously thought,” she said. “In practice, that has affected India’s subsidy system for the poor, which allows them to buy necessities. Households that were not defined as poor before can now be reached with these policies, and that is a direct result of Deaton’s research.”

United States' Oil Addiction

As a society, we are oil addicts. Oil is in everything we use as a society. It powers our cars, planes, and trains. We use it to make plastic, rubber, carpets, and paint. It provides us with electricity, heat, and power. The U.S produces about 11.5 trillion barrels of oil per day, or roughly 506 trillion gallons of oil. As a country, we are the second largest producer of oil only behind Saudi Arabia. But this alone is not enough to feed our oil addiction. The U.S imports 8.53 million barrels of oil each day, roughly 372 million gallons of oil each day. Our oil addiction comes at a cost. Drilling for oil slowly degrades habitats and releases harmful gases into the ozone layer. Oil spills are killing our marine habitats and wildlife. And yet, Americans still do not admit to this harmful addiction and show no signs of changing our habits.  

population Notes

 There are over 7 billion people living in the world, and in nearly every country in the world, the population is rising as well. In places like Chad and Nigeria, women are having 5-10 kids with the hopes that at least 3 of them will live to adulthood. In places like Japan, the U.S, and Canada, women are having just 1-3 kids, knowing that their country has the resources to see their children grow to be an adult. This figure is called the total fertility rate, or TFR. For the population to remain the same, the TFR must remain at 2.1. The total fertility rate is the number of children born per women in a country. The replacement rate is 2.1 because it takes a women to have 2 children to replace her and her partner. The extra .1 is for women who do not reach adulthood and would not have children.  

Illegal Immigration

As the GOP presidential campaign continues, one of the major topics that is being highly debated is the stance on immigration. Some believe that this is a major issue and we as a country so go so far to stop illegal immigrants as to build a wall at our over 1,000 mile border with Mexico. But how big of a deal is illegal immigration? The best estimate puts the number at nearly 11 million, a 1 million person decrease since 2011. These immigrants take jobs in America that not many Americans normally take. They take the most labor intensive jobs at a lower paygrade than what most Americans would take. Detaining these migrants can cost about $90 a day and space is very limited in these facilities. Building a wall between Mexico and the U.S. won’t solve much due to overdue visas and illegals can come by boat o the border. This wall would cost us billions of dollars to build, even though Trump claims that Mexico will pay for the wall.

Is America the Greatest Country in the World

 We watched a clip from the Newsroom in which one of the candidates for office states his belief that America is no longer the greatest country in the world. I agree with this statement. A clear example is the shooting in Roseburg, Oregon. More people know about the shooter’s name and life then about the hero, Chris Mintz, who charged at the shooter, got shot 5 times, and stopped him from shooting more people in the room. Because of this publicity, a group of teenagers were arrested over the weekend in California who created a plot to shoot up their high school based on the shootings in Oregon. Just today, a man was spotted carrying a gun in a Pennsylvania community college carrying a gun after multiple threats were sent out earlier in the weekend.  

gun control laws

The tragic shooting at the community college in Oregon brings back the raging debate about gun control laws. A 2013 study reports that approximately 270 million firearms were possessed by civilians compared to only 897,000 carried by law enforcement. Honduras and Switzerland both have the exact same population at 8.2 million people. Honduras bans its citizens from owning guns but Switzerland requires its citizens from owning guns. In theory, Honduras should have one of, if not the smallest homicide rates in the world. The result: Honduras has the highest homicide rate in the world while Switzerland has one of the lowest homicide rates in the world. How could that be possible?  I believe that it’s because no matter how strict you make gun control laws, criminals will always find a way to get possession of a firearm. It’s so easy to buy a gun that you can buy one on amazon and get free shipping for it to come in the next day. How could gun control solve that?

 

Globalization: Pro and Con

Globalization has both a positive and negative side, depending on how you look at it. For some, globalization is the expansion and expression of capitalism worldwide. You can make as much money as possible based on how well your company does. Globalization has allowed trade to expand globally, because of the invention of the internet. Once these people start to gain a profit, the wealth will end up trickling down to the poor and the government will collect more taxes. Others say that this worldwide capitalism only creates an economic rift. The rich can continue to get richer, and the poor can only get poorer. To create a business, you must first have the resources to start one. In many third world countries, this is a near impossible task. You must also have the means to expand globally, which means having internet access and he means to ship globally. Inevitably, the core countries then end up becoming stronger, while underdeveloped countries become weaker. Arguing about whether globalization is positive or negative is pointless because it is inevitable, and has been occurring for centuries.