Livestock and it's importance

Animal domestication is very important for us and as been for many many years. The author of Guns, Germs, and Steal, Diamond, lists the top five herbivorous domestic mammals, which were mainly found in West and Central Asia, Eurasia, and North Africa. These animals where and are very important for us to this day, they have made our lives easier in so many ways and we've found so many uses for these animals: sheep, goats, cows, pigs, and horses.

These animals help us provide for our families and others, they've helped us survive throughout rough times. We've found many different uses for cows, goats and sheep. For example, they all produce milk, that contains the calcium and other vitamins we need. Their meet is not only very delicious, and nutritional, it's also a great source of protein. When we eat the meat we feel full, more than what we would feel if we only eat wheat and fruit. The fat of the pig might not be very healthy, for it has plenty of fat, but it sure kept us full as well. These animals are very easy to take care of, we didn't have much trouble domesticating them. Also, since all they eat is herbs, their excrement is used as good soil fertilizer, which is only helpful for us.

The skin of the cows, sheep and goats where very valuable as well, we could use their skin as clothing and blankets. As, we keep finding new ways of using these animals that didn't have to be fed meat (other animals); the number of these animals kept increasing. As well as our increase in technology. The use of fire to heat up the meat and cook it, also finding new ways of using their milk. We now use cow and goat milk, and other dairy products that are very profitable.

The horses are exceptionally important in our animal evolution and our human evolution. These animals have helped us in battles in the early days. They were a sign of power in many places. For example when the Europeans went to places like Mexico and Perú, they were viewed very differently. The Aztecs where frighten of these "monsters". Nevertheless, they were useful to carry out messages to other places, since technology wasn't as advanced as it is now.

Nevertheless, if humans started spreading from Mesoamerica and little by little moved west to Eurasia and Africa, it probably had been quite difficult to domesticate the animals specified above. Growing crops would have been a very slow process if we were to do it manually without the help of these animals. And to not mention animal domestication would have become very difficult.

Idea for Senior Project

I am not a hundred percent sure what I want my senior project to be about yet, but do know what I want to incorporate into it and that is culture and politics. This summer I have had the opportunity of a lifetime. I was selected by EIL to join a group of other young people to explore the country of Turkey. There I had the opportunity to do something I love doing: learning about new cultures. I had a very small idea about the history of Turkey and knew almost nothing about how their political system worked. It was shock that the Ottoman Empire (based in Turkey) had a great influence over the Middle East and in a huge chunk of Europe. They conquered the Greeks, were allies with the French, English and Germans, won wars against Russia and Sweden, and made it all the way to the gates of Vienna, Austria. This empire has done so much and was one of the richest and most powerful empires in Europe and the world. Then I tried to look for them in the 10^th grade world history book called The Human Story by James C. Davis, they were not mentioned. And as for it's major city (and former capital) Istanbul, it is only talked about when it was called Constantinople (under Roman rule). This left me baffled. How can a powerful empire who's influence spread so far and army conquered so much territory not be mentioned in a history book?

This left me wondering. What else if left out of history books that is had a great impact on history? What current events will shape our lives in coming year are going under the radar? Even major events that have recently happened. How many people actually know about the? Which comes to my idea for my senior project. I want to do something like a political and history awareness group. Something that will get people thinking about how much people really know about history and politics.

My Motivation History

It has been almost six years since I started going to school here at Chinquapin and to be completely honest, I was doing it for selfish reasons. I wanted to be the one in my elementary school to get ahead and do something that I thought was going to get me into college easier. I was not thinking about wether I liked it or not. I just knew it was something I had to do. The classes I took ranged from integrated science to pre-algebra to art. I will admit that there were some classes that I had absolutely no interest in. I will not revile which classes they were or who the teachers were, but I will say that I would have much rather have done something else that I wanted to do then study for that upcoming exam. Coming back to the present, Susan had us Drive, by Daniel Pink, to read over the summer. In the first chapter of the book, it talked about humans having three types of motivations that make humans do what they want to do: motivation 1.0, motivation 2.0 and motivation 3.0.

Motivation 1.0 is the simplest type of motivation; it is a biological that helps us stay alive. For example: when we are hungry, then we do what we can to calm our hunger. Simple.

Motivation 2.0 is more complex the Motivation 1.0. It is a type of motivation that requires external forces (such as rewards and punishments) to make a person motivated to do something he/she may or may not want to do. Pink uses the carrot and stick example to help us understand. If a horse does a good job, it is rewarded with a carrot. If not, it is hit with a stick. This sounds a lot like school: do the work and get the grade. So has my entire Chinquapin career been a the human example of the carrot and sticks method?

Finally we get to last type of motivation. Motivation 3.0. It comes from within ourselves. It is when we find our deepest passions and try to master it. This is something that I have done on rare occasions and enjoyed deeply.

Which brings me to my last though. What are my passions? Do I have any? Or has my educational career made me completely overlook what my passions are and only focus on the thinks I have to? Only this year will tell.