Thursday, July 29, 2010

Questions About the Documentary

  • What were the causes of the fall of the Inca Empire?

Diseases, civil war and finally the Spanish raiders.

  • What was the legend created after the fall of the Inca Empire?

A legend of a lost city.

  • What was the most cultivated food in Machu Pichu?

Corn.

  • What did the explorers find in the sealed tomb?

9 Inca skeletons.

  • What did the American explorer document?

The city of Machu Pichu.

  • What was the first monument that was documented by video?

Machu Pichu.

  • How many years (estimative) did the Incas take to build the city?

15 years.

  • How did they design the terraces?

They`ve built different layers with different materials to absorb the water instead of allowing it to cause mud slides.

  • And how did they take the water out of the city?

Using drains all around it.

  • Explain the underground water drain.

They had put the leftover of the rock cutting (rock chips) under the city in order to create a place where the water could go in easily, and the and of this rock chips trail was out of the city, creating an underground drain.

  • How did they cut the rocks?

Using different sizes of rocks to mould a bigger rock for the construction.

  • What did the corn cause in their teeth?

Tooth loss.

  • What do the researchers think that the city was?

A royal hotel.

  • What did they do to the king?

They mummified him.

  • How did they do it (speculation)?

They would put him in the sun during the day and freeze him during the night.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Keep the river in your right- Documentary

We watched a documentary named ``Keep the River in Your Right``, it talked about a man(Tobias Schneebaum) that lived with some indigenous tribes and learned even their languages. But it wasn`t what we expected, it focus more on his life than on the nature and sights of the places.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Dalai Lama

We watched a documentary about the Dalai Lama and his problems with China. China wanted to annex Tibet`s territory and Tibet was agreeing, but after the president said some things the Dalai Lama didn`t like and it generated a problem with 1.200.000 casualties on Tibet`s side. The Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet are now refugees in India.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Nepal

Nepal is country in Asia officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. Nepal is a country enclosed by land and recently became a republic. It has two borders: China and India.

Nepal has a very high population for its territory; it is the 41st most populated country in the world. Kathmandu is the capital and its the biggest city. In the ten highest mountains of the world, Nepal has eight, Including the highest: Mount Everest (29,029 ft high).


They had a monarchy before they became a republic in 2008, the monarchy lasted for 240 years, but now they are the most recent country to abolish the monarchy. Nepal has 11 langages, and the most spoken is Nepali.

Due to the differences of altitude, Nepal has many different biomes. For
example, they have tropical savannas but also temperate forests and montane grasslands and shrublands and even snow in the mountains.

Agriculture represents 40% of Nepal’s economy, services represent 41% and just a small part of the economy comes from industry. The agricultural products are represented by tea, rice, corn, wheat, sugarcane, root crops, milk, and water buffalo meat. The industry is represented by the processing of tobacco, sugarcane and some grains.



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Kuwait- Tiny but Rich

Kuwait is a country in the Middle East, its name derived from a word in Arabic that means ‘fortress built near water’. Its area of 6,880 sq mi and has 3.4 million people. Its oil reserve is the fifth largest in the world, is the eleventh richest country globally and has the 2nd highest HDI in the Middle East, losing just to Israel.

In addition, 95% of its exportations are represented by petroleum and 80% of the money that the state earns comes from this black gold. So, what are they going to do if they run out of petroleum? They need to work out this answer fast.

The weather in March (Spring) is warm and with some thunderstorms, the best period of the year there. They have also sandstorms generated by the Shamal, a wind that comes from NW.

The architecture was very influenced by the Islamic culture, for example, the most famous landmarks of the country are the Kuwait Towers. Even though they were designed by a Swedish architect, and they blend the Islamic architecture (the one used in mosques) and the modern constructions.





Movie

We watched a movie about a woman in the Middle East. The story tells that her husband wanted another wife and was planning to divorce her, but she didn’t agree. So, the priest of the tribe came and tried to convince her that she should agree, because he was going to give her the house and all her daughters.

The husband extorted the priest saying that he knew the priest’s past, that was not clean. So the priest made to her an offensive suggestion, she didn’t accept again. So they accused her of adultery and she needed to prove her innocence, but she couldn’t.

The end is very sad, the entire village stoned her. Her father was the first, her husband the second, then her sons, then the entire village.
This movie was very sad, as the teacher said, it is a movie for us, but for millions of women it is a reality and their life.

Israel is made a country again

In the 1800s A.D. The Israelites were thinking about going back to their land and started moving there in small groups.

After the World War II, there were already 600.000 Israelites in the Land, so the UN decided to give Israel the land and the Palestinians were not happy. There are 2 revolutionary forces in Palestine: Hamas and Fatah, the first one controls the Gaza Strip and the second controls the West Bank. They went through many wars (six days war, Yom Kippur war, etc), and they keep enduring them until today.