Why do civilizations have laws?

There are many reasons civilizations have laws. The most basic reason would be so that they can keep order in their society. If there were no laws, there would be chaos and confusion, people would kill each other, or do things that would negatively harm themselves and those around them. For example, there is a law against drinking and driving. If there wasn't, people would shamelessly drive while they were drunk. Not only would they be crashing into other cars, but they would also run over and kill innocent pedestrians. If there wasn't a law that stated that you must have a permit in order to have a gun, people could just stroll over to a shop that sells guns, buy one, and then randomly start shooting anyone that walks by. I think you get my point...laws keep order in a civilization.

In humanities class today we also talked about "The Code of Hammurabi". For those of you who don't know, Hammurabi was the ruler of Babylon, and eventually formed the Babylonian Empire. "The Code of Hammurabi" was made in order for Hammurabi to keep order in his empire, yet some may argue that his laws were too extreme and severe. I would agree with that, yet I think he has reasons for why it was so. Before I explain my opinion, I would like to give you some examples of some of his "harsh" rules. The first one would be that if a boy struck his father, the son's arm would be severed off. Another example would be, If someone fails to meet a claim for debt, and sell himself, his wife, his son, and daughter for money or give them away to forced labor: they shall work for three years in the house of the man who bought them, or the proprietor, and in the fourth year they shall be set free.
I think that Hammurabi made the laws so severe because he wanted to make sure that no one would commit the crimes, or make such huge mistakes. If the punishment was very brutal, people wouldn't want to face the consequences, and would think twice before committing the crimes. If the punishment for murder was a 300 ringgit fine, like speed tickets, rich people could just go around killing people. If the punishment is death, less people would be murderers!

I guess Hammurabi even had his reasons!

Connect-Extend-Challenge Part 2!!!

This is an extension to my previous post, 'Connect-Extend-Challenge'. I would like to expand my thinking. As you saw below, I was wondering how we evolved all the way from 10000 years ago, where there was barely any technology, to now, where most people would have trouble surviving without it.
How did this evolution occur? After doing a project on Homo erectus, I guess it is safe to conclude that as time has past, mistakes would happen and a new things would be discovered. For example, look at fire. It is technically a form of technology. Homo erectus confronted natural fires and would have noticed its warmth. He would have possibly preserved it and stayed close to it when he was cold. He would also use fire to cook meat and keep away any predators.
Overtime the human brain has evolved and become somewhat more sophisticated. When this happened we received more advanced technology. For example, Thomas Edison creating the light bulb. In the future technology will advance even more and more and more...and more.
Now, is the advancement of technology making a positive, or negative impact? Well, I guess it depends on the way you look at it. For me, the fact that we now have things like light, cars, computers, air conditioning, etc., is helping develop the world in a positive way. Imagine life without these things. I know that for most people life would be much more difficult.
There are also times where I think that technology is making a negative impact. For instance, since there is technology like game boys and PSP's, we have actually created new diseases like diabetes type two. It is caused because we are not as healthy as the past generation.We sit at home and watch T.V. to pass the time, whereas our parents and grandparents would go outside and play tag for fun (as kids). Another negative impact is that we are literally destroying our environment. When you think about it, before technology we weren't really using up so many natural resources. Now our continents will literally be under water, just because people don't take the time to do simple things like turning the air conditioning and lights off before they leave a room. Don't get me wrong though, I know I would have a loooot of trouble surviving without technology.
That is my point of view anyways.
Thanks for listening!

Connect-Extend-Challenge

Today in class, we did an activity where Mr.McQueen gave us a piece of paper that had three columns, based on the movie 'Guns, Germs, and Steel.
The first column was about making connections with what we saw in the movie, and what we already knew about the world. For my answer, I basically wrote things similar to the post below. My connections were that, since places like Europe had better crops, they were more advanced than places like Papa New Guinea (Papa New Guinea's crops were not as nutritious). My other connection was that the America's have good livestock and crops, because it was shipped over from Europe. The only live stock that Papa New Guinea really had were pigs.
The second section was about what made us expand our thinking. I wrote that since Papa New Guinea did not have very nutritious crops, they would not be able to take care of their people very well. If the people weren't able to be healthy, they would not be able to be as productive as different places around the world.
The last section was about what questions we still had. The movie was very informative, so I only had one main question. I asked about how technology transformed and evolved from 10,000 years ago, where the most sophisticated technology was a plow, to today, where we have sooooooo much technology everywhere.

Geography's Impact on Advancement of Society

Today in class I watched a movie that is based on a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel. This Movie talked mainly about Papa New Guinea and its history, as well as other places around the world. During the movie we had to take notes on interesting things in the movie, then at the end we gave a title to our notes. My name was the title of this post, Geography's Impact on Advancement of Society. I gave it this name, because throughout the movie the narrator talked about the crops and land of Papa New Guinea. They made connections with the crops, and the advancement of civilization today. When they compared the crops of Papa New Guinea to Europe and the America's, Europe and the America's crops were more nutritious and better. Then, when you compared the advancement of technology in New Guinea and Europe and the America's, Europe and the America's were more advanced. Therefore, the geography of the land obviously contributed to different areas to be more advanced. You also needed more food to feed specialist and take care of them. Food takes up a lot of time and money, and it is difficult for a developing country like Papa New Guinea to fit the requirerments of an advanced society.

The Wall of Thoughts

The wall of thoughts is a chart that my class made. (I was absent, I didn't make it!) It is a chart that compares what people have in modern day KL to the things Early Man would have used instead. When you compare the two, it is pretty obvious that modern things are much more sophisticated than the things from the past.
Below is the chart:

	Kuala Lumpur	Early Man
Food	Cold Storage Fruit from backyard Buy ingredients/make food	Berries and leaves Hunt Raw meat
Water	Bottled water Filtered water Bought water	Rivers Lakes Dig holes in ground
Nature/Environment	We ruin it-global warming Trees Use fruits and edible plants	Edible plants Oxygen
Resources	tools	fire rocks pot for cooking bones fire, rocks, wood
Shelters/buildings	apartment, house	caves, huts, simple huts
Technology	computers protection equipment tools factories electricity	rocks, spears hand axes fire hammer bones, stones
Education	schools, tutors, jobs, parents, others, “Does a learning environment have to be in a school?”	learning from elders taught each other learned from experience
Communication	languages, road signs hand movements, gestures talking writing, reading internet	cave paintings hand gestures sign language grunts noises
Transportation	bicycles, trucks, cars, etc. bikes, horse, carriage walking, jogging, trains	feet walking, running
Economy	stock markets government community/cooperation tourism/traveling money, currencies	bartering trading
Government/Politics	court, jury people in charge minister, president, king mayor placed ruler vs. elected ruler	chief no designed ruler
Belief System	Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, religions Believing in yourself, not giving up	Consequences Ceremonies They did not have religions
Entertainment/Art	Games, tv, internet, movies, clothing, amusement parks, cinemas,	Dancing Hunting ceremonies Making necklaces, drawing on walls Jewelry
Culture	way of cooking, eating, dancing dances, ceremonies way of life anthem accessories	dancing, cooking, hunt animals celebrate for dead people

Although the things in modern KL are much more sophisticated than in the time of Early Man, in every section everything is used for the same purpose. For example, with the things under food you eat, with the tools you cook and build things, and with communication you try and get your ideas across to someone else. Even though the early humans weren't as high tech as we are today, they were still capable of adapting to their environment to survive.

What makes Kuala Lumpur a Civilization?

Kuala Lumpur has various factors that contribute to it being a civilization such as:

Politics/government

The Prime Minister

Entertainment/Culture

Traditional Malaysian Dancing

Art

Batik

Transportation

Trains, cars, and motorcycles.

Food

Nasi Lemak

Communication

Talking and hand movements.

Buildings

Petronas Towers

Economy

Ringgit

Education

ISKL

Technology

Cell Phones

Kuala Lumpur has a government that helps make laws and supply people with streets, roads, schools and more. Kuala Lumpur is also home to a vast variety of cultures and religions. Some of the nationalities are Chinese, Indian, and Malayan. There are also many different religions: Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, and Muslim. People also speak, Bahasa Malaysian, Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi, English, etc. Overall KL is quite modern. It has differing transportation: cars, trains, and most of all, motorbikes. KL also has very well known infrastructure like the Petronas towers, and the KL tower, and the currency is Malaysian Ringgit..

Blogging

Appropriate blogging is when you don't have anything that is racist, rood mean, etc. You must always be aware that you are not the only person that is reading the blog, and you must be very cautious when you write. You should also make sure that all of the movies and videos that you put on don't have anything sick or gory.
When you blog it should be suitable for all ages, because you have a worldwide audience. Every blogger must remember that anyone can read what they are writing. Young, old, or right in the middle. Everyone reads it and the blogger has to try and appeal to all of its audience.
Word of advice, you must always be careful that you don't give away too much information. If you go ahead and type your full name, your school, your exact address, etc. you would not be safe. A stalker, or serial killer could come and chop off your head. (kidding, but seriously. Be careful.)

SPCA

Today the sixth grade listened to a woman from the SPCA. She explained what it was like there, and the process they have to go through with the animals. She also talked about how all of the animals had to be neutered, in order not to double the amount of animals there.
There were two parts in the presentation that I really didn't enjoy. The first thing that I positively hated was the fact that some animals (dogs and cats) were seriously abused by humans. It is unrealistic for me to comprehend the fact that a human being can actually go on with their lives after severely injuring a poor, defenseless animal. A few of the cases were: a dog dumped in tar, a cat that had hot water poured on it and then was thrown around, a dog that was stoned, a dog who's tail was chopped off, a dog who's leg was chopped of, and a dog who's nose was severed. Those are not even all of the examples.
The second thing that disturbed me was the fact that once an animal isn't adopted after a while they have to put it to sleep. (In other words, kill it.) I understand that there is not enough room in the SPCA, but it just frustrates me.
Although I had to learn about the bitter truth of the word, now I know what I can do to help. I asked my mom if we could go and volunteer out once in a while and she said yes.
There is one last thing I want to say. If you want an animal, don't go to fancy shops and pay a lot of money to buy one. Instead, got to a pound like the SPCA and adopt something. You would pay a fraction of the money and you would be making a difference.

Call It Courage

Call It courage was an interesting book about a boy named Mafatu. He has had a fear of the sea ever since it took his mother's life when he was three. Everyone in his tribe mocks him. Even his father seems ashamed of him. He finally leaves his island of Hikueru and goes to an island where the eaters of men live. His two closest (only) companions are a dog named Uri and an albatross named Kivi. He goes through many ups and down in the island and eventually he makes it back home (with the help of Kivi). When he goes back to Hikueru everyone treats him like a hero. The author makes the story very interesting and descriptive. I enjoyed the book very much.I recommend everyone to read it.

Me Me MEEEEEEE!!!!!!

My name is Anissa. My favorite shows are Ugly Betty and CSI Miami. I love tennis and climbing. I was born in Canada, raised in America, and I am currently living in Malaysia. I am happy that Barrack Obama won the American election and that America finally has an African American president. I really think he can change the world. I hate the fact that there are so many poor people in the world. Whenever my parents take my sisters and I to poor countries, I make them give money to every person I see. When I grow up I want to be either a paediatrician or a doctor without a border.