When looking at the video it was amazing how it the first wars started where the current problems still are at unrest today. You can tell the major civilizations started in the Eastern Hemisphere and that expanded tremendously over the beginning years. The Number 1 hotspot was Europe. The Number 2 hotspot was the Middle East. The Number 3 hotspot was China/Japan/Korea. It’s very interesting that history moves in a circle. All of these problems that are brewing in the world are in these exact spots with the exception of Europe at the moment. Things are going to get very interesting in the upcoming years. It shows throughout history the major empires get tested throughout the years and if you fail there goes everything you have built transferred to another nation. I think we are on the verge of an epic war. With all the major powers of the world building and striving to be the main power of the world the United States are seeming to be a little uneasy. With North Korea there has been said that they were willing to retaliate in the United States if we ever went through their country as we have been doing with past countries in the Middle East. Then we have the civil unrest happening in many countries in the Middle East. The citizens are starting for fight for their freedom and are tired of being oppressed. When Rebellions like these occur the United States feel as if they have to get involved, making it seems as if we are the world police. I think we make a lot of enemies by doing this because we are sticking our noses on other countries business meanwhile we are doing the same things in terms building new and stronger weapons. It will be very interesting when a country just tells the United States enough and forces there hand, a Country that will not back down and will take the fight back. As it shown in the video many countries in Europe that were empires were attacked by many countries and eventually leaded to the countries demise. We can only wait and see.

When it comes to modern-day society it is very hard to break out of a label that has been placed on you. I see it everyday As minority student here at Penn State. Just the other day I had to go to a conversation project for Sociology 001. In this conversation we were speaking about the gender roles and how it affects the way you go about doing things and how you were raised. I noticed how many of the other students were very similar to me on how they have pressures of being a male but up to a certain extent being a African-American male things were slightly different for me. For example many of the students had never received bad treatment for the way they look or had to just work extra hard to get what they want. Just because of old labels that Are certainly decreasing as time goes on many people have suffer for it. There needs to be a point where people are judged for being themselves and what the accomplished. The Phrases life is a rat race is phrase that to me ex plains lifes truths. Yes everyone is striving to be the best( yet another term that society predetermines the best to be) and most successful but the end of the day your still a rat in the race , A normal person. Who determines what rich is and what poor is. Or even if being a freshman makes your less responsible than a senior. I find it interesting that as time goes on that things are starting to become more diverse and less stereotypical. The generation before sort of halfway erased what there parents told them and started to open to everyone. With the belief in today's society that everyone is equal back in the 60's there was no way A African American could be a president. The times are changing and as they do so will we as individuals. We have to forget what the past at some point and live at the moment. A society where men and women could have the same occupations instead of getting scrutinized for it. As the article says these labels could be extremely powerful and effect people in ways we couldn't even imagine.

Amazing Article I feel as if you have that one thing that could relive that stress or take your mind of things you could conquer anything. When it comes to sports it helps me personally get my mind of the most stressful things in my life. During a time of my life where I was experiencing many deaths in my family football was the thing that got me through the pain. Everything I was going through I let it out on the field. Playing with so much emotion even inspired my teammates and it led to me to receive MVP accolades throughout my conference. Sports is so big for many countries. In the poorest countries they have sports which is shared between the rich. On the sports field everyone is equal and treated the same. Thats the greatest thing about sports. It could be the gatekey to a person getting out of there fiancé situation and head up in the ranks in society. Not only is sports a gatekey but it also stops world problems temporary. During the gulf war Saddam Hussein stopped The war just to watch his country play against one of the greatest soccer players ever. It was a once in a lifetime experience. But back to the article It was a good heartwarming story. That people that went through so much pain could still enjoy something they love. The only problem I have with sports is that in America they need to have more opportunities for under privileged children of America. Yeah there's many programs but not enough. We need to get everyone the same experience sports should be unequal. Theres many diamonds in the rough and the stars of the NBA and the NFL. Sports is bigger then ever now. Everyone seems to be tuned in to the favorite sport and going hard for there teams of choice. Each major sporting event is breaking world records for the most of all-time. Its just comes to show you how big sports are in modern day history. Sports even effects my mood. If my team is losing it effects my psyche. It could make or break my week.

I find this Article very interesting. It’s amazing how many people in so many different countries have lost faith in there religions. It seems that many people in today’s society have followed the trend of not being a believer in any sort of religion and following the atheist route. Me being a Christian I follow faith in which I believe in strongly and to most people it is not enough. But there have been many Christians who have wrote numerous books about the facts about the Bible. Some people choose not follow these facts and disregard them totally but that’s the way society is. Some people need facts by the media or maybe even high authorities to persuade them in anything they do. In about five years I could see a drop off people in many religions because of all the disasters that are occurring. I could see people blaming GOD for their families in these tragedies. In regard to fact that many people think science could explain everything Science is not capable of proving the non-existence of supernatural events. But things thought to be miracles in the past science have shown to have a naturalistic explanation. Just because some phenomenon yield to supernatural explanations, doesn't mean that all phenomenon will (non-sequitur). Just because a naturalistic explanation can be offered, doesn't mean it's the best explanation (e.g., multiple personality disorder vs. demon possession). Rather, scientific philosophy (naturalism) has assumed the non-existence of supernatural events. It’s simply false that you can’t know anything unless science proves it. At the end of the day though it goes back to what influences people the most and that is others. I think trends now and days are growing at a rapid rate. Social Networks are spreading the word of people’s beliefs and now people are influenced differently than they were a couple years ago. There are many instances were people’s faith could be restored and you see that in many instances in the world. God does come through for many people and turns things around in their lives. Until then though people will continue to doubt faith in religion.

I think that the Ny Times piece on the tsunami in Japan woke a lot of people up and is very necessary. It showed the magnitude this disaster could have on the world as a whole. With the shift in the earths crust everything on the earths latitude and longitude has changed and it is going to keep changing as we see many of the cities that are on these plates start to do things very differently. Today's society is so focused on technology and being the most advance countries and world powers but there forget some of the most important things in the process. For example in Japan you would think that there would be a plan in-case of a earthquake occurs in terms of there nuclear power plant. After the fact is not a good way to solve the problem. In the united states they now have checked for solutions to disaster and are trying to find ways to back up cooling systems once they fail. Simple things like this could save many lives and problems. I feel that the world is coming to a turning point and that every year countries will be seeing more disasters then usual. All of this technology we have today could easily be wiped out if something really drastic happens. Then what do we do? We should start doing things while were in the calm such as save major artifacts, gather seeds, and stock as much food as possible. Its never wrong to over-prepare yourself. As I look back on all of the trails and tribulations each country suffers after a major catastrophe I think to my self what could have they done different in terms of having the money and a plan to lookout for your country after they endure on one of the biggest tragedy's of their life. People watch there homes get destroyed or loved ones pass away just to deal with the after effects of a storm. Such as no food and No plan.Just look a FEMA and the Katrina situation they could of did way better effort if the practiced more and were prepared.

I could defiantly agree with the seasonal depression I find that personally i function way better in warmer weather. In the winter I find myself tending to get sick, depressed, dis pear, gloominess and no motivation. It highly effects my grades as I do much better when its sunny environment which tends to be the spring semester. My grades reflect that as my gpa is tremendously better. I don't think that I could live in a country like Finland that experiences this type of atmosphere. I fee like the people around will be very droopy and downers compared to a country where there's constant sunlight and warm weather. These invisible strings are quite visible when its a sunny day in any country. On a nice day you tend to see many people with a sense of joy going on in there lives regardless of there situation. It just boost everyone morale. Other then that fact that if effects the person mood it also hurts the country economically which could correlate to there emotions. They work so hard to get there money just to budget it funds going towards staying warm and having light. I don't know if that's the most reasonable lifestyle but they are used to it. Its Amazing though how the country tries very hard to illuminate the town knowing the effects the darkness could have on there citizens. They do a good job of providing festivals that remind of the better days are coming and that feeling of what a summer day could bring. All in all the Americans take having seasons for granted. Many people complain that its to hot in the summer and love their Air Conditioned rooms and Cars. But we have to take note of countries like these that don't have that luxury and would do anything for just a sunny day that could last more then six hours. We as Americans need a reality check. it would go along way if we just appreciate our summers as science shows are getting shorter and shorter as the years go on. Thank God for the Groundhog.

After watching this video I think overtime there will be knew things parents teach their kids about what’s out there. With today’s day and age now is not the time to beat around the bush with your children. There are many sick people in the world and it’s looking like it’s just getting worst every day. This video has to be like the firth abduction video I saw so far in the New Year. I totally agree with the last lady they interviewed about her telling her child to hold her hands and stop playing on the street because there are people who don’t have good intentions for children on the street lurking. By just telling your children not to talk to strangers is giving them half of speech. We must make them aware for the mentally unstable and tell them in detail what to do if a situation occurs. I could see in some of my young siblings who were instilled from when they were just a toddler “do not talk to strangers”. Not to say that its bad advice because to moment someone approaches them in public they talk in such a manner that the whole crowd sees them and notices what’s happening. But that process could only do so much as the stranger could easily take them away. So this is where the extra advice comes in and you tell your children what to do in case they get abducted. Whether that’s telling them to scream to the top of their lungs or fight back you must make them aware of our current society. This isn’t the eighties where you could just have your kids walking to school without a fear of them being kidnapped. I think every parent in the back of their mind worries about their child’s safety where there on their own. All in all I think that there should be more teaching with children about child abduction. Schools could afford to bring in many people to talk about drugs and sex but somewhat leave out safety in public. I think if we could focus more on that it would talk less worries about our children on our minds knowing that they know and will try everything they learned about the situation they have been fully prepared for.

This Polyandry practice is very strange to me. Maybe it the fact that or society that we live in today would never except. Mainly for the fact that it’s a woman being shared instead of the most common, practice in many third world countries with Men having multiple wives. I think that the social context of how their society is mainly what surrounds them. To them what they’re doing is no wrong and you could see it in the people their interviewing. The resident of the extremely rural town have had no outside interference on the have been living for years. There is hardly any media to model off of to tell you what’s right or wrong. So who’s to tell them what they’re doing is not morally right. There are many social factors the do come in to play though. Because of the social factors such as double the men then the women it makes sense for family members to share one woman. It prevents sexual dieses and unwanted pregnancies. This could be the start for many other countries to model the cultures after this. Countries like China that are facing the same population problems with the Men being the main culprit could try to exercise this philosophy to have some stability. What could start to see is that since many of the western media starting to expose this lifestyle all of the hype behind Polyandry could start to affect the people who are used to it. With people questioning them every day it could start to become a question of “are we doing the right thing”? All in all I wouldn’t be against Polyandry bearing the conditions that are leading into it. For the many men that can’t find a partner and are desperately trying to carry on their generations, in fear that their family tree might come to a halt. With this practice if gives people some sense of stability weather we believe its right for them or not. We do not know what they’re going through. We don’t know how we respond to their situation if it ever came about.

This is inspiring to hear from a prisoner who knows he was what he did in life was wrong and knows accepts it. Now and days everyone think the system we have is wrong and that it doesn't forgive. There might be a couple things that are messed up in terms of criminal penalty but for the most part everyone in jail earned there right to be there. When it comes this particular guy though I feel very bad as he admits he wasn't in the right state of mind when he committed the crime. He knows the amount of pain that but family's are experiencing and all he wants at this point of his life is forgiveness. In Christianity forgiveness is one of the main aspects of the religion where Jesus Christ was said to die on the cross to for all the sins of mankind and accepted there forgiveness for whatever they did in life. But one of the keys things people should try to stay away from in life whether its religion or not is don't do something where your going to end up needed to be forgiven for. Try to do the right thing in life. As a man if a guy has done wrong to any of my love ones and knows he was out of line and begged me for forgiveness it would hurt for me to accept it but I feel that I cannot hold a grudge forever. At some point in time I think I would have to forgive to end that chapter in my life. As for the way they treat prisoners in today's society is very disturbing. Many people I have seen go in come out totally worst person then what they were before they went in.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that they are together in there with probably the worst environment possible that provides not a single positive aspect to there life. All in all America needs to help our prisoners work out a plan in jail so that when they come out or if they never come out they just feel as if there missed and people are routing for them to do better with there life.

This Video is a great example of what I am seeing in today’s generation. With the society we live in many people want to do the so called “In Thing”. You can find examples of this in my different aspects of today’s American culture. I see this in many instances when referring to pop culture. A lot of today’s youth would love to be just like the celebrity icons so they mimic a lot of what they do just to conform to the larger crowd. Whether that’s buying a particular item of clothes, routing for the popular team that everyone’s into at a certain time, or a preference to a certain alcoholic beverage it all comes from a source in the industry. And it goes back to the video, in today’s modern age you might feel like you’re left out or awkward if you’re no up to date with the recent technology or knowledge of what’s going on in television something like the water cooler effect. Just picture you’re at work and everyone is talking about the Superbowl prior to the event. You will defiantly find sometime in your schedule just to take a chance to capture some of the game to have something to discuss when everyone is talking about. There aren’t too many people living outside the box and if they are they are heavily scrutinized about the way they do things differently. It shouldn’t have to be that way. We should have the ability to do what we feel when we feel without conforming to what society tells us what’s right. Would it be right for me to walk into Formal event wearing swimming trucks and a white tee? Who decides what formal is? Those are many questions people of my age group are starting to ask and shockingly many people are deciding it’s time for change and are doing many things outside the “Norm”. All in all people shouldn’t feel uncomfortable when it comes to not fitting but as long as your human your will always feel like you have to be a part of something and no one wants to feel left out.