Boy, 11, accused of killing father's pregnant girlfriend

11 year old boy charged with two counts of murder in the first degree. The victims include the fathers pregnant girlfriend, and the child inside of her. She was 8 months pregnant, and there is no apparent reason for these two deaths at the moment. The boy used his own weapon, a youth model 20-gauge shotgun, designed for the use of children. The body of the pregnant woman was found in her bed the next morning by her 4 year old daughter. The daughter, shortly after, ran outside and alerted some nearby landscapers who called it in to the police. Under Pennsylvania law, anyone over the age of 10 accused of murder or homicide is charged as an adult. If the boy is convicted, he will be looking at a maximum of life in prison with no parole. There is no known history of child abuse, but there is still an ongoing investigation.

How do Civilizations Rise?

How do Civilizations Rise?
By Jordan Willis

The Mayan Civilization, Egyptian Civilization, Mesopotamian Civilization, and Indus River Valley Civilization all rose in a similar way. They all rose through the same basic methods, and for the same basic reasons. The Four Factors of a Civilization are the explanation for how they rise. The Factors, in order based on importance, include Geography, Society, Economy, and Technology. Each play a key role in developing a Civilization, and in keeping it going.
Geography is the most important factor in the rise of a civilization. All four of the civilizations that we have studied were located right near a river. The Egyptians were on the Nile River, Mesopotamia was between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, The Indus River Valley was on the Indus river, and the Mayans were surrounded by a bunch of different rivers. The reason Rivers are so important to a civilization is irrigation. Rivers help farmers to grow more crops more efficiently. Also, all civilizations have some sort of Natural Barrier. The Egyptians had a lot of desert, Mesopotamia had a desert and a mountain range, the Indus River Valley had both desert and mountain range, and the Mayans had a mountain range and a thick jungle. These Natural Barriers are important to keep enemies from attacking, and keep unknown diseases from making people sick. Also, when it rains, rivers are formed in the mountains as the water flows down the the people. That is why Geography is a key part to the rise and maintaining of a civilization.
Society is the second most important factor in the rise of a civilization. All four of the civilizations were able to create a certain culture. Since the rivers were helping farmers to grow more crops, other people were given more time to shape this culture. They had more time to learn a spoken and written language. That is important because then information and true stories of their lives could be written down and known today. They also had to communicate with one another. Art and Music was also created with this time. The people were given time to think about life, and how they could explain the natural occurrences of everyday life. They created their gods, mystical figures to explain death, life, and much more. They invented new recipes for cooking their meals. Society is important to keep a civilization running as well. Without it, the civilization would crash and burn.
Economy is another factor of a civilization that was important to its rise. Each civilization we have studied had an economy. Some did all trade, and some had a kind of money to purchase goods. Living on the river made it a lot easier to trade with other civilizations. They would trade anything they could for for anything they could. They used to trade food recipes to other cities or civilizations, and receive recipes from other places as well. They would make beautiful pottery just for the purpose of trading it for something else, things like pots and dishes. Some of the women would make amazing jewelry to trade with other women, or men for their women. Along the river, they would also exchange ideas, things like math and astronomy. As the people traveled to trade their goods, they learned some language from the other people, and they adopted some customs from them as well. They also sold stuff for money so they could buy something from someone who wasn’t willing to trade for you goods. Economy kept the people somewhat equal with one another. They trading and learning from other civilizations kept ideas fresh as the civilization thriving.
The fourth factor is Technology. All civilizations develop different things, but a lot of them are also the same inventions. People created tools like wheels, which were put under carts and pulled by animals. They also invented weapons out of different kinds of stone or metals. The Mesopotamians used bronze to construct weapons, which is much stronger than The Mayans’ Obsidian. The Indus River Valley designed a sewage system that kept people from throwing crap on the streets. The Indus people also had a very effective city planning style, they used a grid system showing that had great math skills. All of these ancients people were able to create a style of housing good enough to still be there, for the most part, today. They had time to create a language, written and spoken, for the other people to learn. Technology, though fourth out of four factor, was extremely important in the rise and maintaining of a civilization.
All four of the civilizations we studied shared those four factors in common. Geography, Society, Economy, and Technology. They each have a different role to play in the rise of a new civilization. Without even just one of them, the civilization would fail, crash and burn as I said before. So, to have a civilization, the four factors are are necessity. IIf one fails, they all fail. All people, all across the globe, have the same style of thinking. That is why four different civilizations, on all sides of the world, share so many commonalities with one another. That is because of man, all of mankind have the same brain, and all brains think of Geography, Society, Economy, and Technology. That is why these four factors are the four factors.

More Restrictive Computer Use Agreement

An argument from a teachers point of view about the computer use agreement.

I believe that our computer use agreement is too loose on the students. They are still getting away with playing games, using facebook, and chatting online. We have not been able to stop them from messing around in and out of class. Even when we catch them in the act, they do not stop. We punish them once, twice, but how many times until they get the message? How long will it take for them to respect us enough to stop. What will it have to come to to receive a little respect from our students? I believe that punishment is not the answer, it has not worked yet, and will continue not working in the future. We need to let them know how we feel, how it makes us feel when they would rather listen to their itunes music than listen to us speak. We need to connect to these students to figure out what would interest them more than the computers, what could we teach that they would enjoy? Thank you my fellow teachers for listening to me speak.

Mayan Technology vs. Egyptian Technology

The Mayans and the Egyptians had similar technological advances in their times. Their architecture was pretty close, both Civilizations developed a special building structure known as the Pyramids. Well, the structures were similar in appearance and were both built for the ruler. Both were shaped like a triangle, but the Mayans had different levels getting smaller moving up. So, they both developed a similar structure with similar reasoning. Their mathematical counting systems were pretty similar as well. Both systems used icons, but the Egyptians used icons fr more bigger number, and the Mayans used an icon for zero. They also both used lines, but the Egyptians line were vertical and equal to one, while the Mayans lines were horizontal and equal to five. The Mayans used a dot to show one, but the Egyptians did not use dots in their counting system. So, the Mayans counting system isn't so different from the Ancient Egyptians. Another technological advancement that both civilizations created was their calendars. The Mayan calendar was very accurate and could predict when the sun would rise or set, what time of day it was, even when there would be an eclipse. Their calendar had 365 days in the year, same as we have now. They even predicted the end of the world, 2012. The Egyptian calendar was based on the phases of the moon with 360 days in a year. Their calendar had three different seasons, each with four months. Each month had 30 days. The Mayan calendar and the Egyptian calendar were not so different, but the Egyptians didn't predict the end of the world, did they? So, to wrap this all up, the Mayans and Egyptians were not so different from each other. All people have the same basic style of thinking, they all think the same way.

Mayan Civilization vs. Egyptian Civilization

These two civilizations have got a lot in common and also a couple differences. Both Civilizations were ruled by one ruler. In Egypt it was the pharaoh. In the Mayan civilization it was the mah kina. However, the Mayans had different city states led by people they called halch uinic. The Egyptians did not have city states led by separate leaders under the pharaoh, they did have cities though. The Mayans served their gods with many human sacrifices, the the Egyptians rarely, if ever, performed human sacrifices. Both civilizations had a had a polytheistic religion. They each believed in many gods to explain everything that happened. The people would pray to the specific god they requested help from. The geography of each civilization is pretty similar, yet not exactly the same. Both were located on a river. The Egyptians on the Nile and the Mayan were surrounded by dozens of rivers. The Mayan civilization was located in a rain forest nowhere near a desert. The Egyptians were located in a desert with no rain forest anywhere close. The Egyptians wore a fair amount of jewelry since they lived in big cities and had no apparent danger. The Mayans, located in the rain forest with danger around every tree, wore a lot of body paint, so that they could move quickly and swiftly. Both civilizations came to a sudden end with the bubonic plague which got Egypt, and the Spanish that got to the Mayans.

Yellow Submarine SMASH Reflection

Today, in science class, we had to something. We were treasure hunters with a problem. The treasure was on an island with 10 foot brick walls all around. We had to confirm that the treasure was there before being able to send in our men, due to the fact that our enemies could appear from out of nowhere. Our mission was to construct a periscope capable of reflected images from the other side of the wall. We were sailors on a submerged yellow submarine. Given that the ocean was the table top and the island was a cardboard box in the center of it we had limited supplies for constructing such a thing. We had with us some cardboard, 10 sheets of paper, 4 mirrors, and an unlimited supply of tape. So, we got to work, and in the end none of us were able to verify the location or that it was even there at all. In the end, we all went home to our loved ones with nothing.
My group consisted of Kevin Chi, Connie Chiou, and myself, Jordan Willis. We used the supplies given to us so that every piece played a role in holding the periscope together. We never really changed our design, we never really planned a design. However, when we did modify our beautiful creation it only made it better. My team communicated both verbally and physically. If someone noticed it needed more tape they would point to where they saw it was needed and say,"Tape?", and the other two would say,"Yes" or "Sure" or "Whatever". We were very communicative, just not about the assignment. If I was helping someone make a periscope for the first time I would tell them to just build it. I faced the difficulty of critical thinking and problem solving, so should they. But, if I had to give a hint, I would tell them to just build it, it's easier than planning, and if you face a problem you can change it easily.

Thank You