Presidents

Mexico

Federal Republic

President Felipe Calderon

China

Communist 

President Hu Jintao

India

Federal Republic

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

Afghanistan

Islamic Republic

President Karzai

Iran

Theocratic Republic

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Israel

Parliamentary Democracy

President Shimon Peres

Germany

Federal Republic

President Joachim Gauck

United Kingdom

Constitutional Monarchy

President

France

Republic

President François Hollande

Brazil

Federal Republic

President Dilma Rousseff

Venezuela

Federal Republic

President Hugo Chávez

Saudi Arabia

Monarchy

King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

Authors 10/22/12

Hector Hugh Munro (18 December 1870 – 13 November 1916), better known by the pen name Saki, and also frequently as H Munro., H. was a British writer whose witty, mischievous and sometimes macabre stories satirized Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noël Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse. 

Edgar Allan Poe (born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

William Sydney Porter, known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer. O. Henry's short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization and clever twist endings. Born 1862 and died on 1910. William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father, Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He moved to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving to Austin, Texas, in 1882, he married.

Julie Otsuka (born May 15, 1962) is a Japanese American author. She won the American Library Association's Alex Award in 2003 for When the Emperor was Divine, and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2011 for The Buddha in the Attic which was not only a New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestseller but also placed as a National Book Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Otsuka was born on May 15, 1962, in Palo Alto, California. Her father worked as an aerospace engineer, while her mother worked as lab technician before she gave birth to Otsuka. Both of her parents were of Japanese descent, with her father being an issei and her mother being a nisei. At the age of nine, her family moved to Palos Verdes, California. She had two brothers growing up, Michael Otsuka, is currently teaching at University College London. 

William Cuthbert Faulkner (born Falkner, September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner worked in a variety of media; he wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, essays and screenplays during his career. He is primarily known and acclaimed for his novels and short stories, many of which are set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, a setting Faulkner created based on Lafayette County, where he spent most of his life, and Holly Springs/Marshall County.

Questions

1. Is Christianity a monotheistic or a polytheistic religion?

Christianity is a monotheistic religion. 

2. What is the Buddha also known as in Buddhism?

Buddha is also known as "the enlightened one".

3. What are the central figures of Christianity?

The central figures, in Christianity, are Jesus and the Pope.

4. What two places do Muslims make pilgrimages?

The two places that Muslims make pilgrimages to are Mecca and Medina.

5. What are the most diverse and probably the oldest religion?

The most diverse and probably the oldest religion is Hinduism.

6. What is the oldest monotheistic religion, dating back to 3,000 years.

The oldest monotheistic religion is Judaism.

7. Was Christianity founded before or after Jesus’s death?

          Christianity was founded after Jesus’s death

8. What kind of group is Judaism?

Judaism is an ethnoreligous group, and their beliefs and their laws are very much intertwined.

10/4/12

Today in Human Geography we had a shadow student, it was Carly's shadow. Mr. Schick was making the shadow very unconformable. I forget the shadows name but I think it started with a D and it was a very unusual name. Mr. Schick showed us the email he got back from John. When he got the email, he didn't expect the price, for John to come here, to be so high priced. It is 6,000 dollars for John to come talk to our school. Everyone in the class said that that isn't a lot of money, but to me that is a load of money. After Mr. Schick showed us the email, he ask us what we out on "How Can We Help" page on his blog page. After we went through all of the foundations, we talk about how we could raise money to get John or even Panther to come to our school to talk to us. 

10/1/12

Today in Human Geography we finished watching God Grew Tired of Us. We talked about some things that happened in the movie and what we all thought of it. I actually thought it was really cool and it awakened me to this crisis. We also talked about what we would like to do to help John and his fundraiser. I really liked the idea that someone brought up was just everyone in the freshman class raised money to help John's charity for Sudan. I also thought what was really cool, was the idea to invite John to talk to John Carroll about his charity and talk to the whole school how important it is to know about what is happening in Sudan. If we can raise enough money, to get John to John Carroll, that would be great for his fundraiser and for John Carroll.