Blog #8

Tornados have fasicnated me for as long as I can remember. I respect the people who are putting themselves in harms way to actually study tornados to help us better understand their formation and patterns - which is what is happening in this video. I am disturbed by those people who go around just to be entertained by the storms - they get all giddy and excited when they are actually going to see something big and don't seem to be thinking about those affected by these powerful storms.

My closest encounter with one was in the summer of 2001. I was playing baseball, and the lightening kept getting worse. Our parents kept wondering when they were going to stop the game, and finally they did. I had riden my bicylce to the ball park, so one of my teammates dad's threw my bike in his truck and they dropped me off at home, and just then the tonado siren sounded. There was much destruction around the area when that storm produced a tornado that touched down. One home around a mile east of Seward was totally destroyed, leaving only the basement. My brother and I helped with the Salvation Army's distribution of food to the victims and clean-up crews.

Now that I'm in my wheelchair, I am probably much more frightened of tornados, because I know my abiblity to take cover anywhere is not always going to be possible. I hope people realize that warnings and watches should be taken seriously and not just looked upon as an opportunity for entertainment. Respectful fascination is okay, but the respect has to be there, or someone could get seriously injured.

Blog #7: Formation of the Grand Canyon

There are many different ideas of how the Grand Canyon was formed. There are theories from evolutionary geologists; the old-earth creationists; and the young-earth creationists. This topic is of great interest to me, and I would like to highlight the view points of the youth-earth creationists, because I found their theories to be most in line with scripture.

The Grand Canyon is about three hundred miles long, a mile deep, and varies in width from four to twelve miles across. This is a big geological structure which makes it very obvious to all of us that it took a great event/process to create such a beautiful place.

According to evolutionary geologist and even old-earth creationists, the Grand Canyon began forming about 17 million years ago. Although scientists say that they aren't for sure how the Grand Canyon was formed, they believe that there were several steps in creating the Grand Canyon. The biggest factor mentioned in creating the Grand Canyon, even if it is located in a desert, was through erosion both by water and wind.

Young-earth creation scientists believe that the layers of rock in the Grand Canyon were created about five thousand years ago by the world wide flood which Noah, his family and animals representing all the "kinds" survived in the ark. If we consider the current rates of erosion, it would take about 71,000 years to erode the amount of Grand Canyon that is missing as of today. That would leave over 70 million years worth of eroded material unaccounted for. The big question basically ends up being is did it form slowly over millions of years with a little water or quickly with a lot of water.

This quote from a page from the Answers in Genesis website http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v18/i2/grand_canyon.asp explains the geological formation of the Grand Canyon from a creatinist and catastrophist view:

Creationist geologist Dr Steven Austin says:
'The crystalline-basement rocks exposed deep within the Canyon (schist, granite, and gneiss) represent some of earth's oldest rocks, probably from early in Creation Week. Tilted, deeply buried strata (the "Grand Canyon Supergroup") show evidence of catastrophic-marine sedimentation and tectonics associated with the formation of an ocean basin midway through Creation Week, and may include ocean deposits from the post-Creation, but pre-Flood world. The Canyon's characteristic horizontally stratified layers (the "Paleozoic Strata") are up to 4,000 feet thick [1,200 metres] and are understood to be broad sedimentary deposits in northern Arizona dating from the early part of Noah's Flood. Remnants of strata overlying the rim of Grand Canyon (the "Mesozoic Strata") are associated with a widespread erosion surface.'2

Dr Austin says that these features suggest tectonics, sedimentation, and erosion during the last half of the Flood year as the Colorado Plateau was lifted more than a mile above sea level.

'The catastrophic erosion of Grand Canyon (probably a result of drainage of lakes) was associated with river-terrace gravels, lake sediments, landslide deposits, and lava flows of the post-Flood period,' he says.3

Rather than being easily explained by evolutionists, the formation of the Grand Canyon is a problem for evolutionists, but fits well into the framework of the Bible.

I believe that the creation days in Genesis were 24 hour days, and, therefore find myself in agreement with the young-earth creationist on the formation of the Grand Canyon. Here are links to more Answers in Genesis articles about the Grand Canyon that may be of interest:

The Case of the 'Missing' Geologic Time:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v14/i3/time.asp

Grand Canyon Limestone-Fast or Slow Deposits:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v17/i3/limestone.asp

Grand Canyon: Startling Evidence for Noah's Flood (foot prints and sand 'dunes' in Grand Canyon sandstone):
http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v15/i1/flood.asp

Blog #6

One thing I found insightful in this video was how it talked about Dubai and how it is one of the fastest growing cities. The most interesting fact I found was not from the standpoint of the growing construction sites but how 180 different cultures get along happily within this city.

I think that this city can be a great model to the rest of SW Asia's culture. With the whole Gaza strip issue it can be seen that many cultures cannot get along. How can this then be that the people of Dubai can get along so well while Gaza cannot?

Another great idea that this clip can bring to other cultures in this area was the statement that Dubai is a "revolution not with guns or bombs but with ideas." This can be a great model to other states who are fighting over land with bombs but should instead talk about their feelings.

According to our textbook it stated that Dubai was created because of oil. This shows the power of oil reserves in the country. Our textbook talked about how the countries who not have the oil resources and income raise their economy through means of tourism. However Dubai will grow rapidly with a sound economy because not only was it built with oil resources but will also attract tourists to the area.

Dubai is also helping cultures by employing people from Bangladesh,India, and Pakistan to work at construction sites in Dubai. This will help supply cultures with money to live happy lives and to support large families.

Blog #5 HDI

In this blog we were asked to study the patterns of human development.It is first important to understand what HDI is and what factors into deciding the HDI number.
There are three factors that contribute in deciding a countries' HDI. These factors include health, knowledge, and their standard of living. These factors can then be classified by other things. For example health is factored by their life expectancy at birth. Knowledge takes into account the ability that adults can read and write and it also includes the number of students enrolled in schools.The last factor called standard of living factors in the GDP.

I first looked at the geographic pattern of HDI in the world. Upon looking at the map, I noticed that places in the Western hemisphere have a higher rate of HDI and places in Africa contained the lowest HDI. One other thing I noticed was that places like Greenland didn't have any HDI because there is too cold to have a very high population.

I can infer several reasons as to why the pattern of HDI exists throughout the world for several reasons. One of these reasons is that Africa has a low HDI because most of their population affected with AIDS and most people here cannot afford the right to an education. Africa also has a low HDI because financially they are lacking and therefore cannot support a luxurious standard of living like places in the United States and Germany that have a very high HDI.

If we take a look at the past history of the HDI in Africa, one can see that the HDI is improving. I think that this can account for the fact that many churches and government agencies are providing services and financial support to the people living in Africa. Africa though still has some of the lowest HDI in the world.

Due to the problem of AIDs in Africa many people are dieing earlier and not living healthy lives. Many women in Africa are also staying at home to raise families and cannot also afford to receive an education. Many people of Africa also do not make enough money and have such large families that is hard to afford expensive things in life. This does not help a countries GDP when people are living on such low incomes and feeding large families.

Blog #4 Current Online News Article

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269381,00.html?sPage=fnc/world/americas

This article titled "Colombia Seizes 27 Tons of Cocaine Worth $500 Million" relates to what the textbook says in Chapter 4 about the drug war in Latin America. The article states that Columbia is the world's leader in production of cocaine. I related this to the article because cocaine is the main source of financial income for the country of Latin America. This is because cocaine brings hard currency and therefore the government cared little about controlling the drug war.

The article also talks about how American taxpayers have paid over $5 billion since 2000. The textbook then said that President Bill Clinton in 2000, committed $1.3 billion to Columbia to help stop the drug war. Therefore comparing this article and the textbook, over the last ten years Americans have taken it upon themselves financially to help stop the drug war.

One thought I had after reading this article was the idea of Columbia's economy being crippled after the navy made the largest drug seizure of cocaine. The textbook says in 1980 the region was hurt by a badly damaged judicial system. It was during these 1980s that the costs of the drug war became so important to Latin America. If Latin America is paying police to help control the drug war will that threaten the power within the country?

The textbook also says that although Columbia has successfully created coca it will cause a war elsewhere in the world. This article then brought up how evident a war could be between countries when another country seizes their cocaine, like the ship in this article.

Blog #3

This first picture shows the distribution of overcrowded homes in the world. By definition, an overcrowded home has more than two people living in each room. The people who live in a richer society tend not to be overcrowded because they can afford to build bigger homes. Other countries that are poor and have large families cannot afford to build bigger houses. It is also considered cultural in some parts of the world to have large families.


As you can see North America and South America have lower overcrowded homes because most people in this region are more wealthy. However the third-world countries that are very poor have a high rate of overcrowding their family members. For example Asia has a very large rate of overcrowding families and this is because it is their culture to have large families. Although large families is valued in their culture, they don't have the money to build bigger houses. Also with the lack of income many grandparents and extented family members live with their immediate family. These older generations rely on their immediate family to take care of them.





The second picture shows where many women are illiterate in the world. By looking at this map North and South America contains low rates of illiteracy. This is because in America many women are given the funds and opportunities to go to school. Women here are respected and work full time in society.

The map also shows that Southern Asia contains high rates of illiteracy among women. This is because in these countries women are not respected or highly looked upon in life. Many women in these countries are not given the opportunities to go to school because their job is to stay home and take care of the family.

Blog #2 - Google Earth Views of Latin America - Not Your Typical

This view of the western edge of Latin America shows how much of the Pacific Ocean is between that area and any other large land mass - you can't even show New Zealand on Google Earth and still be able to make out the edge of Latin America. I can't help but think about the indigenous people of Latin America and North America - there's no doubt, when looking at all the water separating the East from the West that there would have to be some major developments in the world before the continents could reach one another. I also think about the ancient civilizations in Latin America and how developed they were, even though they were so far apart from any other part of the world - or maybe being so isolated allowed for this development.



This view shows the eastern edge of Latin America and it's proximity to major land masses to it's east. There is still a huge distance spanning the Atlantic Ocean; however, much smaller than to the west. The physical distance between any region of the world to any other region of the world is, of course, not as relevant as in the past due to globalization. For instance, Latin American soap operas (telenovelas) are viewed regularly in places such as Coratia and China.