If you're reading this website, terrific. But you might want to read it a bit more carefully. Last Sunday I posted a practice quiz on the Katrina handout - with answers. In a pinch I decided to use it today as the Thurs quiz. Only one student of my 144 showed evidence of having noticed the similarities.
Curiously, I noticed that top students had copies of mondotrudeau. I was delighted. If they'd read the material in their hands they would have aced the game.
In a quest to up the readership of the class blog I've decided to use questions that have already appeared on the site in each week's quiz.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Louisiana's wetlands: Marvin Flood Vs Syreeta Subsidence
Louisiana’s wetlands loss / National Geographic
Marvin Flood Vs Syreeta Subsidence, a sort of yin and yang . . .
* subsidence is the settling of of the delta and coastal regions.
* subsidence: an extreme example is a sink hole (Fl, Tx, Ca).
* subsidence is exacerbated by a) industry b) drought
c) lack of replenishing floodwaters.
* subsidence is balanced by flooding, the ancient force centered in river valleys.
* aguifers (underground reservoirs) balance the land's tendency to subsidence.
* aquifers are replenished by a) the water cycle b) underground water channels that link aquifers.
* CMHS campus is adjacent to old river channels established when the Red R was clogged with the Great Raft. Ex, Pierre Bayou.
* study of sediment, alluvial soil, subsidence, etc, is geology.
* hydrology is the study of water and its ways.
* Venice, Italy, was built on marshy land between canals; has been a victim of subsidence. (See other cities named Venice in Ca, La, Fl.)
- Sediment carried downstream by the Miss R goes into the depths of the Gulf of Mexico instead of helping build the coastline.
- Alluvial soil flows to the gulf because flooding is inhibited by man-made structures called __. A; levees (French, lever, to “raise up.”)
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Graphic project: America's great Mississippi River valley
Geography students made a colorful map of the 13 states and 6 of the rivers (Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas, Red) that surround the Mississippi. The name comes from native Americans and means the "Father of Waters."
It is preparation for the study of Louisiana's vanishing wetlands.
Vocab included coureurs de bois and the spelling of their teacher's French Canadian name. Which French Canadians were most famous in Louisiana history?
The founders of Louisiana colony and Nouvelle Orleans, Iberville and Bienville.
Since I noticed that few students in my classes actually know each other's names, we invoked the right to play the Name Game. Relationships now seem to be on firmer ground.
Open notes quiz tomorrow.
It is preparation for the study of Louisiana's vanishing wetlands.
Vocab included coureurs de bois and the spelling of their teacher's French Canadian name. Which French Canadians were most famous in Louisiana history?
The founders of Louisiana colony and Nouvelle Orleans, Iberville and Bienville.
Since I noticed that few students in my classes actually know each other's names, we invoked the right to play the Name Game. Relationships now seem to be on firmer ground.
Open notes quiz tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Nat Geo article on the NO flood from 2004, a year before the storm arrived
Please see (for a change, here's a hyperlink) National geographic story "Gone with the Water"
There's a lot to be learned from this article, which takes us beyond the storms and floods into the causes for loss of coastal lands.
There's a lot to be learned from this article, which takes us beyond the storms and floods into the causes for loss of coastal lands.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Shrinking city: a brief editorial
Spt is losing population (down to 192,000 from a year 2000 high of 200,000), mostly among the young, according to demographer Elliot Stonecipher.
Why?
1. Few jobs.
2. Ineffective political leadership
Why?
1. Small university enrollment:
Centenary,1000;
LSUS, 4000;
BPCC, 4500.
Small numbers in higher education may equal limited community brainpower.
2. Attractive jobs are available in the nearby state of Texas.
3. Significant portion of the population remains in poverty and, thereby, largely resistant to education.
What are your thoughts?
Solutions:
1. Put a community-wide emphasis on support for the university and colleges and for the more demanding high school programs.
2. Enhance the technical schools status and faculties.
Sushi....flash drive / consume with care
Highly, highly recommended for high schoolers: a flash drive.
BTW, our first library visit to make Powerpoint-type presentations will be Sept 6 and 7.
Flash drive / USB drive / Jump drive
* Storage of all sorts of digital files, incl. mp3’s, photos (Jpg’s, Tiff’s) and documents, plus Powerpoint-type projects.
* Replaces need for “floppy” disks.
* Stable and re-writable! Large capacity, too. As low as $10 for a 256 mb model. As low as $30 for a 1 gigabyte drive.
* Long-term storage solution. Store all your schoolwork here and enjoy being organized.
* An iPod Shuffle is actually a flash drive; so is a Nano. With an extra USB cable any mp3 player might be a USB drive storage device.
* The lifetime skill of Record Keeping: the concept of Back Up the Most Important Files on your computer by copying them on a flash drive.
* Hard drives are the typical storage device on a computer. Hard drives store from 60 gigabytes to 200 gigs. But they’re expensive - the spinning disk inside is a precision instrument and, Lordy, please don’t drop it.
* Flash drives will, in the not too-distant future, carry more than our files. They will transport the software from our computer at home. Anywhere in the world we will plug a flash drive into a terminal and see the face and software of our computer - as though we were at home.
wikipedia.com and masie.com
BTW, our first library visit to make Powerpoint-type presentations will be Sept 6 and 7.
Flash drive / USB drive / Jump drive
* Storage of all sorts of digital files, incl. mp3’s, photos (Jpg’s, Tiff’s) and documents, plus Powerpoint-type projects.
* Replaces need for “floppy” disks.
* Stable and re-writable! Large capacity, too. As low as $10 for a 256 mb model. As low as $30 for a 1 gigabyte drive.
* Long-term storage solution. Store all your schoolwork here and enjoy being organized.
* An iPod Shuffle is actually a flash drive; so is a Nano. With an extra USB cable any mp3 player might be a USB drive storage device.
* The lifetime skill of Record Keeping: the concept of Back Up the Most Important Files on your computer by copying them on a flash drive.
* Hard drives are the typical storage device on a computer. Hard drives store from 60 gigabytes to 200 gigs. But they’re expensive - the spinning disk inside is a precision instrument and, Lordy, please don’t drop it.
* Flash drives will, in the not too-distant future, carry more than our files. They will transport the software from our computer at home. Anywhere in the world we will plug a flash drive into a terminal and see the face and software of our computer - as though we were at home.
wikipedia.com and masie.com
Sunday, August 27, 2006
Lower 9th Ward: Katrina practice quiz and the Katrina X house symbol
Katrina practice quiz -
1. Approximate number dead after the Katrina storm and flood: a) 1000 b) 2000 c) 5000 d) 8000.
2. Katrina formed as a storm in the region of the
a) African Atlantic coast b) Bermuda c) Bahamas
d) Gulf of Mexico.
3. Approximately __ of the Crescent City was flooded;
a) 50% b) 80% c) 99% d) 110%.
4. French word for a type of pastry that means “crescent.” a) croissier b) croissant c) crepe d) souffle.
5. New Orleans disaster planners and the US Corps of Engineers did not entirely expect a storm of Katrina’s magnitude. T / F
6. Storm shelter capacity - approximate - of the Superdome: a) 25,000 b) 50,000 c) 100,000.
7. “Breach” means a) to break b) to fill up c) to mount higher d) to reach.
8. This waterway was created by the Corps of Engineers to shorten the path of ships accessing the port of New Orleans: a) Miss River Gulf Outlet (Mr Go)
b) Intracoastal Waterway c) Industrial Canal d) Lake Borgne.
9. Most valuable natural resource associated with the Gulf of Mexico: a) shrimp b) petroleum c) litigation.
10. Most nations across the globe are so tied up with their own conflicts and disasters that the US bore the entire cost of Katrina aid. T / F
1. Some 1,800. 2. Bahamas 3. 80% 4. croissant
5. False 6. 25,000 7. to break 8. MrGo 9. petroleum
10. False.
From KansasCity.com on the spray-painted X found on New Orleans houses:
The markings follow a system. One slash is made when rescuers enter a house. A crossing slash is made when the team exits. The left quadrant records the team name - for example, "MO - 1" stood for Missouri Task Force One. The date is recorded at the top. Any hazards - such as rats or a gas leak - are marked on the right. (In New Orleans, this side was also used to note whether the team entered the building.) At the bottom is the number of victims.
"It is an universal language for rescue teams," said Doug Westhoff, Missouri task force team leader.
1. Approximate number dead after the Katrina storm and flood: a) 1000 b) 2000 c) 5000 d) 8000.
2. Katrina formed as a storm in the region of the
a) African Atlantic coast b) Bermuda c) Bahamas
d) Gulf of Mexico.
3. Approximately __ of the Crescent City was flooded;
a) 50% b) 80% c) 99% d) 110%.
4. French word for a type of pastry that means “crescent.” a) croissier b) croissant c) crepe d) souffle.
5. New Orleans disaster planners and the US Corps of Engineers did not entirely expect a storm of Katrina’s magnitude. T / F
6. Storm shelter capacity - approximate - of the Superdome: a) 25,000 b) 50,000 c) 100,000.
7. “Breach” means a) to break b) to fill up c) to mount higher d) to reach.
8. This waterway was created by the Corps of Engineers to shorten the path of ships accessing the port of New Orleans: a) Miss River Gulf Outlet (Mr Go)
b) Intracoastal Waterway c) Industrial Canal d) Lake Borgne.
9. Most valuable natural resource associated with the Gulf of Mexico: a) shrimp b) petroleum c) litigation.
10. Most nations across the globe are so tied up with their own conflicts and disasters that the US bore the entire cost of Katrina aid. T / F
1. Some 1,800. 2. Bahamas 3. 80% 4. croissant
5. False 6. 25,000 7. to break 8. MrGo 9. petroleum
10. False.
From KansasCity.com on the spray-painted X found on New Orleans houses:
The markings follow a system. One slash is made when rescuers enter a house. A crossing slash is made when the team exits. The left quadrant records the team name - for example, "MO - 1" stood for Missouri Task Force One. The date is recorded at the top. Any hazards - such as rats or a gas leak - are marked on the right. (In New Orleans, this side was also used to note whether the team entered the building.) At the bottom is the number of victims.
"It is an universal language for rescue teams," said Doug Westhoff, Missouri task force team leader.
First years, the Class of 2010, can access the Mondotrudeau class blog in the CMHS library
Open at lunch, at Activity Period, which is on Wednesdays, 10:20 to 10:45, and open before and after school, the CMHS library has some 30 terminals. Plus there are 2 librarians and a very helpful library assistant to make sure things go smoothly.
Mondotrudeau.blogspot.com can be accessed on every digital station in the school library.
Parents and students are expected to read and print out - where needed - on Sundays (anytime after 1 pm) and Wednesday evenings. That way the usual Thursday open-notes quiz and occasional Tuesday map quiz and as-scheduled projects will be on everyone's agenda.
Scroll down if you're looking for assignments for the week of Aug 28, please.
Scores: students will know all their scores by mid-week and I plan to send home early progress report print-outs to All families Tuesday, Sept 5.
Some 10 parents have gotten a call from me with concerns about student performance. Early adjustments are best!
I'm sure more parents will be on my list this week. After all, I work with 143 clients per day. If you are worried - who's not? - and want an even quicker update, email me at trudeau@earthlink.net.
Finally, the 1st Brown Bag Parent Lunch at 1:30 on a Friday drew a terrific group of 5 parents. There will be another meeting in my classroom, C4, this Friday. Please RSVP by email or call but failing that I'll be happy to see you regardless.
Mondotrudeau.blogspot.com can be accessed on every digital station in the school library.
Parents and students are expected to read and print out - where needed - on Sundays (anytime after 1 pm) and Wednesday evenings. That way the usual Thursday open-notes quiz and occasional Tuesday map quiz and as-scheduled projects will be on everyone's agenda.
Scroll down if you're looking for assignments for the week of Aug 28, please.
Scores: students will know all their scores by mid-week and I plan to send home early progress report print-outs to All families Tuesday, Sept 5.
Some 10 parents have gotten a call from me with concerns about student performance. Early adjustments are best!
I'm sure more parents will be on my list this week. After all, I work with 143 clients per day. If you are worried - who's not? - and want an even quicker update, email me at trudeau@earthlink.net.
Finally, the 1st Brown Bag Parent Lunch at 1:30 on a Friday drew a terrific group of 5 parents. There will be another meeting in my classroom, C4, this Friday. Please RSVP by email or call but failing that I'll be happy to see you regardless.
Shrveveport population slipping, according to census estimates
Shreveporttimes.com / Aug 15 / joelanderson@gannett.com
The Times writes, "Shreveport may have again slipped below a population of 200,000, a decline that could eventually affect the city's status in seeking state and federal funds.
The recently released federal population estimate of 192,531, which includes only people living in households and with a margin for error of 5,230, was mostly greeted with caution and skepticism by Shreveport officials and local analysts."
After an earlier census estimate for 2005 showed Shreveport's population at 198,874, city officials have began to keep a wary eye on the dwindling numbers. Falling below the pivotal 200,000 population threshold could mean the loss of millions in federal dollars annually for Shreveport, city leaders say.
"Being over 200,000 when it comes census time matters because of federal funding thresholds," said Ken Antee, the city's chief administrative officer. "It's not something that you get extra excited about on a mid-year basis."
Elliott Stonecipher, a local demographer, pollster and political analyst, said the census will soon release a more accurate estimate of the population within the next month.
Those are the numbers, Stonecipher said, that will be a better indicator of the city's population -- especially since it will be the first official count since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"I think those numbers are really solid and the census does a very good job at head counts," Stonecipher said. "People can get mad at the intercensal data, but it's not a commercial for the municipalities. Everybody is subject to the same error."
Either way, the population estimates were hardly a surprise to Stonecipher. Shreveport is losing young people to and has been doing so for decades, Stonecipher said.
"We haven't been growing for a long time," he said. "We've just moved people around some ... and a lot of being are moving out of the state."
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Katrina TV programs Tues, Aug 29, 8 pm, on LPB - as well as other nights, as below
LOUISIANA: THE STATE WE’RE IN
The Year of the Storms
Friday, August 25 at 7:00PM
Sunday, August 27 at 2:00PM
Louisiana’s only weekly newsmagazine kicks off its 30th year on the air with a one-hour look back at how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have disrupted the lives of many of the people and places in South Louisiana. LPB poured all of its resources into bringing the people of the state the in-depth stories of the survivors and their families, the government and its response; and the massive effects on our culture and livelihoods. Join Robyn Ekings and Charlie Whinham as they journey through the one year path of destruction and reconstruction during this anniversary of the storms to end all storms.
WASHING AWAY: LOSING LOUISIANA
Tuesday, August 29 at 8:00PM
Sunday, September 3 at 4:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 8:00PM (National broadcast)
This new LPB documentary looks at six Louisianians and how hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected the coastline, their land and their livelihoods. The characters share their stories and their knowledge of the larger impacts of coastal land loss on the environment, wildlife, economics, industry, culture and community. The participants include New Orleans chef Leah Chase; Errol Domingue, a third-generation sugar cane, rice, cattle and crawfish farmer from Erath; Preston Doré, a shrimper from Delcambre whose seafood restaurant, bar and distribution business were destroyed by Rita; Marlon Horton, a 26-year-old New Orleans East resident displaced to Houston; Port Fouchon port director Ted Falgout; and Kerry St. Pé, a marine biologist and Director of the Barataria-Terrebone National Estuary.
Check www.lpb.org/washingaway/ for educational materials. LPB appreciates the support of the America's Wetland's Foundation which provided the underwriting for the development of these resources.
AMERICAN CREOLE: NEW ORLEANS REUNION
Tuesday, August 29 at 9:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 9:00PM (National broadcast)
In the wake of the hurricane Katrina, Don Vappie -- musician, bandleader, Creole -- struggles to find work and his cultural identity in New Orleans. This documentary follows Don as he tries to keep his band together and bring musicians back to the city. Through his journey Don also begins to question what makes a community, and whether the culture he grew up in can survive, not just the storm, but its aftermath. Rich with music, the film features performances by numerous stars of New Orleans jazz, as well as Don’s far-flung, talented family.
KATRINA’S SMALLEST VICTIMS
Wednesday, August 30 at 8:00PM
When Hurricane Katrina’s high winds and floodwaters knocked out the major hospitals in New Orleans, medical personnel stayed with the hospitalized children and expectant mothers until they could be transported to Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge. This LPB documentary tells of the heroic efforts by Women’s Hospital personnel to not only get these fragile babies and expectant mothers out of New Orleans but to handle their medical and personal needs at their own facility in Baton Rouge.
Week of Aug 28 - Sept 1
Week of Aug 28 - Sept 1
Mon:
“What I Learned” thank you note / essay to Dr. Rob Weber, guest speaker on Katrina and communications. 6 pts.
Tues.
Hand-sketched map quiz, the Crescent City, 8 pts.
Wed.
* Comparing New Orleans and San Francisco
* Comparing Hurricane Katrina to the Mississippi River Flood of 1927
Th.
Open notes, multiple-choice quiz on Katrina-related materials. (15 pts)
Fr. Project on paper: the European-style Vieux Carre Creole townhouse model and terminology.
Independent work for bonus credit -
Read and otherwise research and follow the comparison essay guidelines as you write (Typed only):
* Comparing two of America's smaller, historic cities - such as Boston & Charleston, or New Orleans & Memphis.
* Comparing the architecture and history of New Orleans Vieux Carre and Barcelona, Spain's, Barrio Gotico.
* Comparing the impact of Spain's horses on the New World to the impact of New World foodstuffs on the European world - including chili peppers, vanilla, chocolatl, corn, etc.
Mon:
“What I Learned” thank you note / essay to Dr. Rob Weber, guest speaker on Katrina and communications. 6 pts.
Tues.
Hand-sketched map quiz, the Crescent City, 8 pts.
Wed.
* Comparing New Orleans and San Francisco
* Comparing Hurricane Katrina to the Mississippi River Flood of 1927
Th.
Open notes, multiple-choice quiz on Katrina-related materials. (15 pts)
Fr. Project on paper: the European-style Vieux Carre Creole townhouse model and terminology.
Independent work for bonus credit -
Read and otherwise research and follow the comparison essay guidelines as you write (Typed only):
* Comparing two of America's smaller, historic cities - such as Boston & Charleston, or New Orleans & Memphis.
* Comparing the architecture and history of New Orleans Vieux Carre and Barcelona, Spain's, Barrio Gotico.
* Comparing the impact of Spain's horses on the New World to the impact of New World foodstuffs on the European world - including chili peppers, vanilla, chocolatl, corn, etc.
Faces of Katrina exhibit open at Artspace, 710 Texas
Please enjoy the Faces of Katrina art projects downstairs at Artspace. They were developed and written by me with the aid of project manager Wendy Benscoter.
Please sample:
* Silent Gallery Investigation - SGI
* Poetry from a Top Hat
* A tale of New Orleans
* Paper Parthenon
* Rauschenberg Collage
* Newscast Katrina
* Repousse works
* New Orleans celebrity masks
* Second Lining
* Parade umbrella
*** *** ***
Answers!
Quiz 2 / Walt Disney Concert Hall, etc.
1. What concert facility in Shreveport is comparable in size - number of seats - to Disney Hall? b) Spt Civic Theater
2. What was the result of the mismanagement of the Disney Hall project?
b) 16 year elapsed time
3. Who was the originator of the Disney Hall project?
b) Lillian Disney
4. Compare the cost of the Disney Hall ($274M) to the cost of Pirates of the Caribbean ($250M).
c) Both are great entertainments that will draw viewers for a long time.
5. Frank Gehry buildings are to be found in Chicago, Seattle (and many more USA cities) and in __.
a) Spain
6. Academic writers think of Gehry’s designs as
b) deconstructivist
7. In what way might we be able to compare the Eiffel Tower, Paris, with the EMP, Seattle?
Both were a) not in harmony with their surroundings
8. Gehry, says Wikipedia.org, cares less about budgetary and time restraints than he does about the beauty of his finished product. False
9. On the map of New Orleans, find one area that was not entirely flooded. d) Uptown.
10. The name of the source for the New Orleans / Katrina map:
c) Times Picayune
Please sample:
* Silent Gallery Investigation - SGI
* Poetry from a Top Hat
* A tale of New Orleans
* Paper Parthenon
* Rauschenberg Collage
* Newscast Katrina
* Repousse works
* New Orleans celebrity masks
* Second Lining
* Parade umbrella
*** *** ***
Answers!
Quiz 2 / Walt Disney Concert Hall, etc.
1. What concert facility in Shreveport is comparable in size - number of seats - to Disney Hall? b) Spt Civic Theater
2. What was the result of the mismanagement of the Disney Hall project?
b) 16 year elapsed time
3. Who was the originator of the Disney Hall project?
b) Lillian Disney
4. Compare the cost of the Disney Hall ($274M) to the cost of Pirates of the Caribbean ($250M).
c) Both are great entertainments that will draw viewers for a long time.
5. Frank Gehry buildings are to be found in Chicago, Seattle (and many more USA cities) and in __.
a) Spain
6. Academic writers think of Gehry’s designs as
b) deconstructivist
7. In what way might we be able to compare the Eiffel Tower, Paris, with the EMP, Seattle?
Both were a) not in harmony with their surroundings
8. Gehry, says Wikipedia.org, cares less about budgetary and time restraints than he does about the beauty of his finished product. False
9. On the map of New Orleans, find one area that was not entirely flooded. d) Uptown.
10. The name of the source for the New Orleans / Katrina map:
c) Times Picayune
Friday, August 25, 2006
A woman's memoir from life during the devastation of Hurricane Katrina
The memoir was written by Dr Rob Weber, pastor and media maven.
Dr Rob Weber, guest speaker on Katrina
See more on Rob Weber, pastor and founder of Grace Methodist Methodist Church, below as well as in today's Shreveport Times.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, after depredations by Katrina via Lake Borgne, the Miss River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) and the Industrial Canal
Hand-sketched map quiz Tuesday . . .
Map of New Orleans, aka the Crescent City:
* Miss R
* L Pontchartrain
* French Quarter (vieux carre, barrio viejo)
* Uptown (St Charles Ave): Tulane, Loyola, Xavier U. streetcars, Audubon park & Zoo.
* Industrial Canal / ship channel connecting L Pontchartrain and Miss R.
croissant: crescent
Disney Concert Hall / Quiz 2
1. What concert facility in Shreveport is comparable in size - number of seats - to Disney Hall? a) CMHS PAC b) Spt Civic Theater c) Municipal Auditorium d) CenturyTel.
2. What was the result of the mismanagement of the Disney Hall project?
a) a building that will roast you if you don’t step lively. b) 16 year elapsed time c) a ton of publicity.
3. Who was the originator of the Disney Hall project?
a) Frank Gehry b) Lillian Disney c) Walt Disney
4. Compare the cost of the Disney Hall ($274M) to the cost of Pirates of the Caribbean ($250M).
a) For that much they should have made a movie about Disney Hall.
b) There may be more waste in city building construction than in Hollywood productions.
c) Both are great entertainments that will draw viewers for a long time.
5. Frank Gehry buildings are to be found in Chicago, Seattle (and many more USA cities) and in __.
a) Spain b) Malta c) Ireland d) Mexico.
6. Academic writers think of Gehry’s designs as
a) 3 dimensional b) deconstructivist c) touristy.
7. In what way might we be able to compare the Eiffel Tower, Paris, with the EMP, Seattle?
Both were a) not in harmony with their surroundings
b) made of steel and very challenging to view
c) both near the water d) not cheap by admission price.
8. Gehry, says Wikipedia.org, cares less about budgetary and time restraints than he does about the beauty of his finished product. T / F
9. On the map of New Orleans, find one area that was not entirely flooded. a) Lakeview b) Broadmoor c) Gentilly d) Uptown.
10. The name of the source for the New Orleans / Katrina map: a) Wikipedia.org b) World Book c) Times Picayune d) Google.
CMHS PAC 600
Spt Civic Theater 1700
Mun Aud 2400
Bossier Civic Center 3000
Hirsch 7000n to 11000
CenturyTel Center 14000,
acc to Spt-Bossier Tourism & Convention Bureau.
Plagiarism: using another person’s words or ideas without citing them as the source.
The answer? Documentation.
*** *** ***
Mondotrudeau.blogspot.com is now viewable on school library computers.
Map of New Orleans, aka the Crescent City:
* Miss R
* L Pontchartrain
* French Quarter (vieux carre, barrio viejo)
* Uptown (St Charles Ave): Tulane, Loyola, Xavier U. streetcars, Audubon park & Zoo.
* Industrial Canal / ship channel connecting L Pontchartrain and Miss R.
croissant: crescent
Disney Concert Hall / Quiz 2
1. What concert facility in Shreveport is comparable in size - number of seats - to Disney Hall? a) CMHS PAC b) Spt Civic Theater c) Municipal Auditorium d) CenturyTel.
2. What was the result of the mismanagement of the Disney Hall project?
a) a building that will roast you if you don’t step lively. b) 16 year elapsed time c) a ton of publicity.
3. Who was the originator of the Disney Hall project?
a) Frank Gehry b) Lillian Disney c) Walt Disney
4. Compare the cost of the Disney Hall ($274M) to the cost of Pirates of the Caribbean ($250M).
a) For that much they should have made a movie about Disney Hall.
b) There may be more waste in city building construction than in Hollywood productions.
c) Both are great entertainments that will draw viewers for a long time.
5. Frank Gehry buildings are to be found in Chicago, Seattle (and many more USA cities) and in __.
a) Spain b) Malta c) Ireland d) Mexico.
6. Academic writers think of Gehry’s designs as
a) 3 dimensional b) deconstructivist c) touristy.
7. In what way might we be able to compare the Eiffel Tower, Paris, with the EMP, Seattle?
Both were a) not in harmony with their surroundings
b) made of steel and very challenging to view
c) both near the water d) not cheap by admission price.
8. Gehry, says Wikipedia.org, cares less about budgetary and time restraints than he does about the beauty of his finished product. T / F
9. On the map of New Orleans, find one area that was not entirely flooded. a) Lakeview b) Broadmoor c) Gentilly d) Uptown.
10. The name of the source for the New Orleans / Katrina map: a) Wikipedia.org b) World Book c) Times Picayune d) Google.
CMHS PAC 600
Spt Civic Theater 1700
Mun Aud 2400
Bossier Civic Center 3000
Hirsch 7000n to 11000
CenturyTel Center 14000,
acc to Spt-Bossier Tourism & Convention Bureau.
Plagiarism: using another person’s words or ideas without citing them as the source.
The answer? Documentation.
*** *** ***
Mondotrudeau.blogspot.com is now viewable on school library computers.
Hurricane Katrina Overview: 4 page handout from Wikipedia.org
Katrina & New Orleans : a brief overview
Hurricane Katrina was the costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States. It devastated the Gulf Coast over 100 miles away from its center, according to Wikipedia.org.
* Formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005
* Crossed southern Florida as a Category 1 hurricane.
* Strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico.
* Second landfall was in La. as a Category 3 on Aug 29.
*
* Caused catastrophic damage along the coastlines of
- Alabama,
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
And to the municipalities of
- Mobile (AL),
- Biloxi (MS)
- Gulfport (MS)
- Slidell (LA).
* Levees separating Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans were breached by the surge, ultimately flooding roughly 80% of the city and areas of neighboring parishes.
* Severe wind damage was reported well inland.
* Katrina damages estimated at $75 billion.
- Costliest hurricane in U.S. history.
- 1,836 people dead.
* Criticism of the federal (George Bush), state (Kathleen Blanco, governor) , and local government's (Ray Nagin, mayor) response to the storm was widespread:
- Investigation by US Congress.
- Resignation of FEMA head Michael Brown.
*
* By August 26, an unprecedented cataclysm was already being considered, since 80% of the New Orleans metropolitan area is below sea level.
* Previous studies by FEMA and the Corps of Engineers warned that a direct strike could lead to massive flooding, which would lead to thousands of drowning deaths.
* On August 28, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the first ever mandatory evacuation of the city, calling Katrina, "a storm that most of us have long feared".
* Refuges of Last Resort established for citizens who could not leave the city. Example: Louisiana Superdome, which sheltered approximately 26,000 people.
On Aug 29, Katrina's storm surge caused breaches in drainage and navigation canal levees. Water flowed from the lake into low areas of the city.
*
New Orleans' levee failures:
- primarily the result of system design flaws
- also caused by lack of adequate maintenance, acc. to the National Science Foundation.
Storm surge also devastated the coasts of Mississippi & Alabama, making Katrina the most destructive and costliest natural disaster in the history of the US.
* Total damage estimated at $75 billion, nearly double the cost of the previously most expensive storm.
* Federal disaster area: 90,000 square miles, an area almost as large as the United Kingdom.
* An estimated 3 million people were without electricity.
Landfall on Aug 29 brought 125 mph winds & storm tide in excess of 14 feet.
- Rainfall of 8-10 inches to a high of 15 inches.
- Several bridges were destroyed, including the I-10 twin span connecting Slidell to New Orleans.
- The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) breached its levees in approximately 20 places, flooding much of east New Orleans and most of Saint Bernard Parish.
August 29 : most of the windows on the north side of the Hyatt Regency had been blown out; other high rise buildings had extensive window damage. The Hyatt was the most severely damaged hotel, with beds reported to be flying out of the windows. Insulation tubes were exposed as the hotel's glass exterior was completely sheared off.
* The Superdome, which was sheltering a large number of people who had not evacuated, sustained significant damage.
* Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport was closed before the storm and was flooded.
* Over 700 bodies were recovered in New Orleans. Some survivors reported seeing dead bodies lying in city streets and floating in still-flooded sections.
* Oil & gas production from the Gulf of Mexico was curtailed by approximately 24%.
* Forestry industry loss was about $5 billion.
Hundreds of thousands of residents were left unemployed. Taxes paid to local governments will shrink.
Katrina also redistributed New Orleans' population across the southern United States.
January 2006: New Orleans population is about 200,000 people; that is less than half of the pre-storm population.
* Insurance companies have stopped insuring the area and have raised insurance premiums to cover their risk.
* Storm surge caused severe beach erosion, in some cases devastating coastal areas. The storm obliterated the Chandeleur Islands.
* Breeding grounds for marine mammals, turtles, birds and fish were lost.
* Flood waters that covered New Orleans were pumped into Lake Pontchartrain. These residual waters contain a mix of raw sewage, bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, toxic chemicals, and about 6.5 million gallons of oil.
Over seventy countries pledged monetary donations or other assistance, including Kuwait (pledge of $500 million), Qatar ($100 million), India, China (both $5 million), Pakistan & Bangladesh.
* Canada, Mexico, Singapore, and Germany sent supplies, relief personnel, troops, ships and water pumps to aid in the disaster recovery. Russia and France also sent aid.
*
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Making annotated representations of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles
Begun today after the California map quiz, the Gehry/Disney model is now worth 20 pts. Please complete it at home. The new deadline - negotiated by 6th hr - is Thursday. The instructions, as on the board today:
The Disney / Gehry model . . .
* Cut out the shapes that imply the sculptural forms created by Frank Gehry in Disney Hall. I suggest 6 pieces or modules. Make it 3 dimensional, a la Gehry. Assemble w glue. 4 pts.
* Complete an annotated design for your notebook that will communicate the facts surrounding this landmark. Include material on Disney Hall (4 items/pts) and Gehry (4) . Add it by neat hand printing.
* add a small map of Los Angeles with 5 identifications (3).
* Write 5 multiple choice questions (5 pts) about this material on a separate sheet. (5 pts) Aim them at your classmates or parents.
An example: The Walt Disney Concert Hall seats 2300 and cost almost a) $10 million b) $100 million c) $300 million d) $1 jillion.
The Disney / Gehry model . . .
* Cut out the shapes that imply the sculptural forms created by Frank Gehry in Disney Hall. I suggest 6 pieces or modules. Make it 3 dimensional, a la Gehry. Assemble w glue. 4 pts.
* Complete an annotated design for your notebook that will communicate the facts surrounding this landmark. Include material on Disney Hall (4 items/pts) and Gehry (4) . Add it by neat hand printing.
* add a small map of Los Angeles with 5 identifications (3).
* Write 5 multiple choice questions (5 pts) about this material on a separate sheet. (5 pts) Aim them at your classmates or parents.
An example: The Walt Disney Concert Hall seats 2300 and cost almost a) $10 million b) $100 million c) $300 million d) $1 jillion.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Hear Hurricane Katrina observer Dr. Rob Weber, CMHS parent, in C4 on Fri, Aug 25 (all classes)
Guest speaker Dr. Rob Weber will show his video on the impact of Katrina to all my classes Fri, Aug 25. Parents are invited.
Weber's script based on interviews with Katrina survivors will be read aloud by several students.
Weber is founder and pastor of Grace Community United Methodist Church and a nationally published author, speaker, video artist and storyteller. He has a BA in theater and philosophy, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry in Communication and leadership for the 21st Century.
I am delighted that this CMHS parent is able to share his background with us. He will speak to 1st hour at 8:30, to 2nd hr, 9:30, 3rd hr, 10:30, to 4th hr at 12:25 and to 6th hr at 1:30.
Call 861-6809 if you have questions.
Weber's script based on interviews with Katrina survivors will be read aloud by several students.
Weber is founder and pastor of Grace Community United Methodist Church and a nationally published author, speaker, video artist and storyteller. He has a BA in theater and philosophy, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry in Communication and leadership for the 21st Century.
I am delighted that this CMHS parent is able to share his background with us. He will speak to 1st hour at 8:30, to 2nd hr, 9:30, 3rd hr, 10:30, to 4th hr at 12:25 and to 6th hr at 1:30.
Call 861-6809 if you have questions.
From Ephraim Goldberg to Frank Gehry to stardom
These notes among the ones on an open-notes quiz Thursday, Aug 24.
Frank Gehry (Ephraim Goldberg): 1929, Toronto
- sculptural design
- Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
- age 17: California
- USC School of Architecture
- Prof at Columbia (NYC) & Yale (New Haven, Conn)
- deconstructivist school of modernist architecture.
- inspired by Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto.
- buildings become tourist attractions.
- EMP (Experience Music Project), Seattle
- Gehry's critics: disregard for harmony, trademark shapes overused, impracticality of his designs.
- architectural criticism was harsh on the Eiffel Tower, late 1800’s.
- developed 3D CAD tools
- designed watch, jewelry, furniture.
- 2006 movie: Sketches of Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry (Ephraim Goldberg): 1929, Toronto
- sculptural design
- Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
- age 17: California
- USC School of Architecture
- Prof at Columbia (NYC) & Yale (New Haven, Conn)
- deconstructivist school of modernist architecture.
- inspired by Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto.
- buildings become tourist attractions.
- EMP (Experience Music Project), Seattle
- Gehry's critics: disregard for harmony, trademark shapes overused, impracticality of his designs.
- architectural criticism was harsh on the Eiffel Tower, late 1800’s.
- developed 3D CAD tools
- designed watch, jewelry, furniture.
- 2006 movie: Sketches of Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry and the endless project: 16 years of development on the Walt Disney Concert Hall
Ciao! Don't forget the California map quizzes Tues.
Notes from Mon, Aug 21:
Map of Spt, bisected by I-20 and I-49:
East Spt: S of I-20, E of I-49
West Spt: S of I-20, W of I-49
North Spt: N of I-20
South Spt: S of 3132
Which of these great highways directly parallels the principal railroad tracks?
Walt Disney Concert Hall, acc to Wikipedia.org.
- seats 2300
- Comparison: Spt Civic Theater
- home of LA Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale
- excellent acoustics
- begun in 1987 / Lillian Disney
- 4 yrs pre-construction work
- underground parking
- mismanagement causes delays
- 2003. complete
- 16 years
- $274 M
- design flaw: parabolic reflector effect causes enormous heat and blinding light in neighborhood, incl. spontaneous combustion.
- Surfaces sanded.
Notes from Mon, Aug 21:
Map of Spt, bisected by I-20 and I-49:
East Spt: S of I-20, E of I-49
West Spt: S of I-20, W of I-49
North Spt: N of I-20
South Spt: S of 3132
Which of these great highways directly parallels the principal railroad tracks?
Walt Disney Concert Hall, acc to Wikipedia.org.
- seats 2300
- Comparison: Spt Civic Theater
- home of LA Philharmonic, LA Master Chorale
- excellent acoustics
- begun in 1987 / Lillian Disney
- 4 yrs pre-construction work
- underground parking
- mismanagement causes delays
- 2003. complete
- 16 years
- $274 M
- design flaw: parabolic reflector effect causes enormous heat and blinding light in neighborhood, incl. spontaneous combustion.
- Surfaces sanded.
Sunday, August 20, 2006
Week of Aug 21 - 25: Katrina revisited
Almost one year ago our lives were touched - in numerous ways - by the storm, flood and displacement produced by Hurricane Katrina.
This week in geo class we will revisit New Orleans, Katrina and the Louisiana coastline.
Mon: Walt Disney Concert Hall project
Tu: California map quizzes (hand-sketched California - 10 idents - and one city - 5 idents).
Katrina quiz, NO maps, timeline of K.
Wed: NO demographics, history
Th: Open notes quiz
Fri: Guest speaker will be Dr. Rob Weber, pastor of Grace Community United Methodist Church. Topic: Hurricane katrina, via video and student readings. Parents invited.
Enrichment: please see http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf
This week in geo class we will revisit New Orleans, Katrina and the Louisiana coastline.
Mon: Walt Disney Concert Hall project
Tu: California map quizzes (hand-sketched California - 10 idents - and one city - 5 idents).
Katrina quiz, NO maps, timeline of K.
Wed: NO demographics, history
Th: Open notes quiz
Fri: Guest speaker will be Dr. Rob Weber, pastor of Grace Community United Methodist Church. Topic: Hurricane katrina, via video and student readings. Parents invited.
Enrichment: please see http://www.nola.com/katrina/graphics/flashflood.swf
Examining Katrina and pondering the impact of the flood and displacement
La Public Broadcasting has productions to remind us of where we've been this past year. If we're fortunate, these programs will enlighten our thinking on where we must go next.
And please don't forget that Bill Joyce and his Artspace team - which includes my wife, Talbot, and me - have an experience for you at Artspace called Faces of Katrina.
It opens at Artspace with a $20 per ticket reception Fri, Aug 25. Please come to see our work.
Artspace, 710 Texas, has been again transformed. More info at SRAC: 673-6500.
The TV shows (not mandatory for my students, but highly recommended):
LOUISIANA: THE STATE WE’RE IN
The Year of the Storms
Friday, August 25 at 7:00PM
Sunday, August 27 at 2:00PM
Louisiana’s only weekly newsmagazine kicks off its 30th year on the air with a one-hour look back at how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have disrupted the lives of many of the people and places in South Louisiana. LPB poured all of its resources into bringing the people of the state the in-depth stories of the survivors and their families, the government and its response; and the massive effects on our culture and livelihoods. Join Robyn Ekings and Charlie Whinham as they journey through the one year path of destruction and reconstruction during this anniversary of the storms to end all storms.
WASHING AWAY: LOSING LOUISIANA
Tuesday, August 29 at 8:00PM
Sunday, September 3 at 4:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 8:00PM (National broadcast)
This new LPB documentary looks at six Louisianians and how hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected the coastline, their land and their livelihoods. The characters share their stories and their knowledge of the larger impacts of coastal land loss on the environment, wildlife, economics, industry, culture and community. The participants include New Orleans chef Leah Chase; Errol Domingue, a third-generation sugar cane, rice, cattle and crawfish farmer from Erath; Preston Doré, a shrimper from Delcambre whose seafood restaurant, bar and distribution business were destroyed by Rita; Marlon Horton, a 26-year-old New Orleans East resident displaced to Houston; Port Fouchon port director Ted Falgout; and Kerry St. Pé, a marine biologist and Director of the Barataria-Terrebone National Estuary.
Check www.lpb.org/washingaway/ for educational materials. LPB appreciates the support of the America's Wetland's Foundation which provided the underwriting for the development of these resources.
AMERICAN CREOLE: NEW ORLEANS REUNION
Tuesday, August 29 at 9:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 9:00PM (National broadcast)
In the wake of the hurricane Katrina, Don Vappie -- musician, bandleader, Creole -- struggles to find work and his cultural identity in New Orleans. This documentary follows Don as he tries to keep his band together and bring musicians back to the city. Through his journey Don also begins to question what makes a community, and whether the culture he grew up in can survive, not just the storm, but its aftermath. Rich with music, the film features performances by numerous stars of New Orleans jazz, as well as Don’s far-flung, talented family.
KATRINA’S SMALLEST VICTIMS
Wednesday, August 30 at 8:00PM
When Hurricane Katrina’s high winds and floodwaters knocked out the major hospitals in New Orleans, medical personnel stayed with the hospitalized children and expectant mothers until they could be transported to Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge. This LPB documentary tells of the heroic efforts by Women’s Hospital personnel to not only get these fragile babies and expectant mothers out of New Orleans but to handle their medical and personal needs at their own facility in Baton Rouge.
And please don't forget that Bill Joyce and his Artspace team - which includes my wife, Talbot, and me - have an experience for you at Artspace called Faces of Katrina.
It opens at Artspace with a $20 per ticket reception Fri, Aug 25. Please come to see our work.
Artspace, 710 Texas, has been again transformed. More info at SRAC: 673-6500.
The TV shows (not mandatory for my students, but highly recommended):
LOUISIANA: THE STATE WE’RE IN
The Year of the Storms
Friday, August 25 at 7:00PM
Sunday, August 27 at 2:00PM
Louisiana’s only weekly newsmagazine kicks off its 30th year on the air with a one-hour look back at how Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have disrupted the lives of many of the people and places in South Louisiana. LPB poured all of its resources into bringing the people of the state the in-depth stories of the survivors and their families, the government and its response; and the massive effects on our culture and livelihoods. Join Robyn Ekings and Charlie Whinham as they journey through the one year path of destruction and reconstruction during this anniversary of the storms to end all storms.
WASHING AWAY: LOSING LOUISIANA
Tuesday, August 29 at 8:00PM
Sunday, September 3 at 4:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 8:00PM (National broadcast)
This new LPB documentary looks at six Louisianians and how hurricanes Katrina and Rita affected the coastline, their land and their livelihoods. The characters share their stories and their knowledge of the larger impacts of coastal land loss on the environment, wildlife, economics, industry, culture and community. The participants include New Orleans chef Leah Chase; Errol Domingue, a third-generation sugar cane, rice, cattle and crawfish farmer from Erath; Preston Doré, a shrimper from Delcambre whose seafood restaurant, bar and distribution business were destroyed by Rita; Marlon Horton, a 26-year-old New Orleans East resident displaced to Houston; Port Fouchon port director Ted Falgout; and Kerry St. Pé, a marine biologist and Director of the Barataria-Terrebone National Estuary.
Check www.lpb.org/washingaway/ for educational materials. LPB appreciates the support of the America's Wetland's Foundation which provided the underwriting for the development of these resources.
AMERICAN CREOLE: NEW ORLEANS REUNION
Tuesday, August 29 at 9:00PM
Thursday, September 7 at 9:00PM (National broadcast)
In the wake of the hurricane Katrina, Don Vappie -- musician, bandleader, Creole -- struggles to find work and his cultural identity in New Orleans. This documentary follows Don as he tries to keep his band together and bring musicians back to the city. Through his journey Don also begins to question what makes a community, and whether the culture he grew up in can survive, not just the storm, but its aftermath. Rich with music, the film features performances by numerous stars of New Orleans jazz, as well as Don’s far-flung, talented family.
KATRINA’S SMALLEST VICTIMS
Wednesday, August 30 at 8:00PM
When Hurricane Katrina’s high winds and floodwaters knocked out the major hospitals in New Orleans, medical personnel stayed with the hospitalized children and expectant mothers until they could be transported to Women’s Hospital in Baton Rouge. This LPB documentary tells of the heroic efforts by Women’s Hospital personnel to not only get these fragile babies and expectant mothers out of New Orleans but to handle their medical and personal needs at their own facility in Baton Rouge.
Saturday, August 19, 2006
The skill of note-taking: space, brevity, legibility; also, California quiz answers
National Ride your bike to work in 90 degree heat Day: Ken Berg, Paul Flowers & RT
Originally uploaded by trudeau.
Aug 18
Notes on California/Los Angeles/San Andreas fault
moxie: energy, guts
Wikipedia.org
Cal: 37M
3rd largest US, pop & area
GDP: 1.5 trillion (Gross Domestic Product, a measurement of a nation';s wealth)
13% of US econ
area larger than Germany
Ag: the Central Valley (which is partly desert)
pg2
Sierra Nevada (snowy mtns)
Mt Whitney (name a gecko Mt Whitney) highest peak in cont. US
Yosemite
Lake Tahoe (tourism)
Over 1/3 state Forested!
megalopolis: when several cities “grow together”
1) SanJose-SanFrancisco-Oakland
2)LA-LongBeach-SantaAna-Irvine-Anaheim-SanBernadino
pop: 12.9 M
Most pop state 12% of Amers
More Cals than Canadians
One of 3 minority-majority states (Hawaii, NMex)
Spt a minority-majority city:
51% black, 47% white, 1% Asian
(African-Amer pop 13%)
pg3
indus 1) ag 2) aerospace 3) ent/tv 4) mfg 5) mining
largest US port: LA / LB
prof sports a major economic force
San Andreas fault:
800 m / SCal
right-lateral strike-slip fault / geological term
ready for the “big one”
devastate LA to san Diego
Diverse state:
largest Asian-Am in US
140 countries rep in LA
polyglot - many languages
****************************
Cedric Glover / cmhs alumnus
active/passive
“pick your brains”
Light industry: GM H3, Frymaster, Libbey-Owens, GE
eucalyptus project, California redwoods / n of Marin county.
Note-taking skills: space, brevity, legibility
Geo class web site as homework:
check it no less than Sundays and Wednesdays.
**********************************
California quiz answers
1. c) viticulture
2. d) Fullerton
3. a) Google
4. a) East
5. F
6. d) China
7. d) Malibu
8. c) suit prone
9. b) Google
10. T
11. F
12. a) South Korea
13. a) Navy research center
14. d) Oakland
15. a) San Francisco
16. a) 1939
17. c) Xerox
18. F
19. a) the Mojave
20. T
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Test One: California / Th, Aug 17
Trudeau’s geography tests: California & Silicon Valley
1) Napa Valley is associated with the art and science of making wine - something at which California excels. Wine-making is called a) vino
b) vineyard c) viticulture d) vintners .
2) Birth of the Fender Telecaster and Precision bass: a) Anaheim
b) Compton c) Palo Alto d) Fullerton.
3) Functions as a triumvirate: a) Google b) Microsoft c) Apple d) US government.
4) Position of the island called Alcatraz relative to the Golden Gate:
a) East b) West c) North c) South.
5) With Stanford University, Google and UC Berkeley in the region, the main industry of Silicon Valley is higher education. T / F
6) Pacific Rim location is an advantage for the Port of Los Angeles because cargo can come directly from __ to the US. a) India b) Britain
c) Brazil d) China.
7) Affluent area: a) San Francisco b) Anaheim c) Oakland d) Malibu.
8) “We live in a litigious society.” In other words, a society that is
a) entrepreneurial b) prone to spraining ligaments c) suit prone
d) communications-minded.
9) Stanford students Sergey Brin and Larry Page collaborated on the creation of a) Yahoo b) Google c) Apple d) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
10) Los Angeles is found at about 34N latitude, 118W longitude. If you had a gigantic tunnel-machine capable of drilling through the core of the earth, you could start at LA and come out, on the other side of the globe, near Beijing. T / F
11) T / F Vietnam and Tibet border China.
12) Cheap labor and highly-educated workers are abundant in the nations of China and __. a) South Korea b) Somalia c) Britain.
13) The area to be known as Silicon Valley was initiated into the high tech world by a) the Navy Research center b) NASA’s aeronautics research c) a venture capital arrangement by a Stanford professor.
14) Not a part of Silicon Valley: a) Mountain View b) Cupertino c) Palo Alto d) Oakland.
15) The Pirates of the Caribbean movies made extensive use of computer-generated images (CGI). Based on our recent studies, we can assume much of the work for those movies was done in a) San Francisco b) Los Angeles c) San Diego d) New Orleans.
16) Hewlett-Packard, an early American high tech company, was founded in a) 1939 b) 1959 c) 1979.
17) In the 1970s and 1980s, ____'s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) played a pivotal role in object-oriented programming, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers.
a) Apple b) IBM c) Xerox d) Microsoft.
18) The Sierra Nevada mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains. T / F
19) In California’s southeasternmost region is a large empty quarter. No mountains, no municipalities. That area must be a) the Mojave b) Death Valley c) Nevada d) San Joaquin Valley.
20) According to the Silicon Valley article in Wikipedia.org, the following organizations are headquartered there: eBay, Dreamworks Animation & TiVo. T / F
1) Napa Valley is associated with the art and science of making wine - something at which California excels. Wine-making is called a) vino
b) vineyard c) viticulture d) vintners .
2) Birth of the Fender Telecaster and Precision bass: a) Anaheim
b) Compton c) Palo Alto d) Fullerton.
3) Functions as a triumvirate: a) Google b) Microsoft c) Apple d) US government.
4) Position of the island called Alcatraz relative to the Golden Gate:
a) East b) West c) North c) South.
5) With Stanford University, Google and UC Berkeley in the region, the main industry of Silicon Valley is higher education. T / F
6) Pacific Rim location is an advantage for the Port of Los Angeles because cargo can come directly from __ to the US. a) India b) Britain
c) Brazil d) China.
7) Affluent area: a) San Francisco b) Anaheim c) Oakland d) Malibu.
8) “We live in a litigious society.” In other words, a society that is
a) entrepreneurial b) prone to spraining ligaments c) suit prone
d) communications-minded.
9) Stanford students Sergey Brin and Larry Page collaborated on the creation of a) Yahoo b) Google c) Apple d) the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
10) Los Angeles is found at about 34N latitude, 118W longitude. If you had a gigantic tunnel-machine capable of drilling through the core of the earth, you could start at LA and come out, on the other side of the globe, near Beijing. T / F
11) T / F Vietnam and Tibet border China.
12) Cheap labor and highly-educated workers are abundant in the nations of China and __. a) South Korea b) Somalia c) Britain.
13) The area to be known as Silicon Valley was initiated into the high tech world by a) the Navy Research center b) NASA’s aeronautics research c) a venture capital arrangement by a Stanford professor.
14) Not a part of Silicon Valley: a) Mountain View b) Cupertino c) Palo Alto d) Oakland.
15) The Pirates of the Caribbean movies made extensive use of computer-generated images (CGI). Based on our recent studies, we can assume much of the work for those movies was done in a) San Francisco b) Los Angeles c) San Diego d) New Orleans.
16) Hewlett-Packard, an early American high tech company, was founded in a) 1939 b) 1959 c) 1979.
17) In the 1970s and 1980s, ____'s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) played a pivotal role in object-oriented programming, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers.
a) Apple b) IBM c) Xerox d) Microsoft.
18) The Sierra Nevada mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains. T / F
19) In California’s southeasternmost region is a large empty quarter. No mountains, no municipalities. That area must be a) the Mojave b) Death Valley c) Nevada d) San Joaquin Valley.
20) According to the Silicon Valley article in Wikipedia.org, the following organizations are headquartered there: eBay, Dreamworks Animation & TiVo. T / F
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Review for Thursday's quiz: sample questions on Skywalker Ranch and a comparison essay topic: California & Louisiana
Aug 16
1) Vino is the theme of the region known as a) Oakland
b) Marin County c) Napa Valley.
2) Anaheim is the part of greater Los Angeles known for a) Disneyland b) the birth of the Fender guitar c) UCLA.
3) When 3 personages attempt to share the power: a) triumph
b) triumvirate c) trinitrotoluene d) triticulture.
4) Once a military stockade and later a prison, today “the pelican” is a tourist site off the Pacific coast of San Francisco. T / F
5) With Stanford University, Google and UC Berkeley in the region, the main industry of Silicon Valley is higher education.
T / F
6) An advantage shared by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach: a) no hurricanes b) Pacific Rim location
c) few port cities on the West coast.
7) Marin County, Napa Valley, Beverly Hills and Orange County may be described as a) affluent b) litigious c) entrepreneurial.
8) While Yahoo has 54% of the search engine market, Google is closing the gap quickly, some 23% of the market. MSN commands about 13% of the web search market, says Wikipedia.org. T / F
9) Having work done outside your nation so as to save money is called a) attribution b) outsourcing c) citation.
10) Beijing is found at about 40N latitude, 116E longitude.
11) T / F South Korea and Russia border China.
12) Cheap labor and highly-educated workers are abundant in the nations of China and __. a) India b) Japan c) Saudi Arabia.
13) Stanford University: a) Mountain View b) Cupertino c) Palo Alto d) San Jose.
14) Not a part of Silicon Valley: a) Apple b) Microsoft c) Google d) Yahoo.
15) Parts of the Hollywood entertainment industry that are located in and around San Francisco (name all the correct answers): a) Lucasfilm b) Pixar c) Industrial Light & Magic d) Skywalker Ranch.
16) Money loaned to promising companies in their early stages:
a) venture capital b) demographics c) data mining d) graphical user interfaces.
Brief comparison essay: California and Louisiana. Please see your handout on comparison essays.
1) Vino is the theme of the region known as a) Oakland
b) Marin County c) Napa Valley.
2) Anaheim is the part of greater Los Angeles known for a) Disneyland b) the birth of the Fender guitar c) UCLA.
3) When 3 personages attempt to share the power: a) triumph
b) triumvirate c) trinitrotoluene d) triticulture.
4) Once a military stockade and later a prison, today “the pelican” is a tourist site off the Pacific coast of San Francisco. T / F
5) With Stanford University, Google and UC Berkeley in the region, the main industry of Silicon Valley is higher education.
T / F
6) An advantage shared by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach: a) no hurricanes b) Pacific Rim location
c) few port cities on the West coast.
7) Marin County, Napa Valley, Beverly Hills and Orange County may be described as a) affluent b) litigious c) entrepreneurial.
8) While Yahoo has 54% of the search engine market, Google is closing the gap quickly, some 23% of the market. MSN commands about 13% of the web search market, says Wikipedia.org. T / F
9) Having work done outside your nation so as to save money is called a) attribution b) outsourcing c) citation.
10) Beijing is found at about 40N latitude, 116E longitude.
11) T / F South Korea and Russia border China.
12) Cheap labor and highly-educated workers are abundant in the nations of China and __. a) India b) Japan c) Saudi Arabia.
13) Stanford University: a) Mountain View b) Cupertino c) Palo Alto d) San Jose.
14) Not a part of Silicon Valley: a) Apple b) Microsoft c) Google d) Yahoo.
15) Parts of the Hollywood entertainment industry that are located in and around San Francisco (name all the correct answers): a) Lucasfilm b) Pixar c) Industrial Light & Magic d) Skywalker Ranch.
16) Money loaned to promising companies in their early stages:
a) venture capital b) demographics c) data mining d) graphical user interfaces.
Brief comparison essay: California and Louisiana. Please see your handout on comparison essays.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Parents: see C4 at 1:30 Fridays during Brown Bag lunch sessions
C4 becomes a serious gallery; post-Katrina paintings by Mary Jane Potts
Originally uploaded by trudeau.
Also on display are gifts from the Arabian Sea nation of Oman. Numerous evocative items were donated to me by Susan Crosbie, sister of CMHS parent Gretchen Reeks.
Student work on the Disney Hall project will also be in progress.
Regrettably, I will not be in my classroom for Back To School Night, Sept 14. I plan to present a video. And in the meantime each Friday will be back to school in Trudeau's room, 1:30 to 2:20. I will explain my goals and plans and confer with you about your student. Please buzz me if you plan to attend. 2 parents are attending this Friday.
That's trudeau@earthlink.net and 221-2501, CMHS, or 861-6809, home.
San Francisco & the Bay Area & Silicon Valley plus vocabulary
Aug 15
Map of San Francisco and Bay Area -
Napa Valley (viticulture)
Marin County / Skywalker ranch / Industrial Light & Magic (& Pixar)
Sausalito (tourism)
Golden Gate strait & bridge (engineering, tourism, fishing)
peninsulas
Alcatraz Is. (military, incarceration, museum; means "pelican")
Berkely (UC Berkeley)
Oakland
Silicon Valley - From SF to San Jose.
Palo Alto / Stanford U.
Mountain View / Google HQ
Cupertino / Apple Computers (Mac)
San Jose
Pacific
Graph the differences in population between Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans (pre-Katrina), California and Louisiana. Document your figures.
eucalyptus
strait
affluent
litigious society
to litigate
vintner
vino
triumvirate
entrepreneur
words beginning with “a l ...” are often (not always) from Arabic
ex: alcohol, algebra, almanac.
“Hi, Can I help you? or Tell an adult: how to maintain security on an open campus.
Laptop guidelines: you may use your computer in the classroom to
a) take notes
b) research vocab in class discussion.
c) research topics that closely relate to the instructional material.
d) develop multi-media reports for this class.
Off task? Usage will be banned for a week or longer.
Need a computer because family finances do not permit replacement or purchase at this time? Please drop a note with your name, phone and parent name. I can get you a used computer - complimentary - from Howard Ross, of the North La Jewish Federation.
Map of San Francisco and Bay Area -
Napa Valley (viticulture)
Marin County / Skywalker ranch / Industrial Light & Magic (& Pixar)
Sausalito (tourism)
Golden Gate strait & bridge (engineering, tourism, fishing)
peninsulas
Alcatraz Is. (military, incarceration, museum; means "pelican")
Berkely (UC Berkeley)
Oakland
Silicon Valley - From SF to San Jose.
Palo Alto / Stanford U.
Mountain View / Google HQ
Cupertino / Apple Computers (Mac)
San Jose
Pacific
Graph the differences in population between Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans (pre-Katrina), California and Louisiana. Document your figures.
eucalyptus
strait
affluent
litigious society
to litigate
vintner
vino
triumvirate
entrepreneur
words beginning with “a l ...” are often (not always) from Arabic
ex: alcohol, algebra, almanac.
“Hi, Can I help you? or Tell an adult: how to maintain security on an open campus.
Laptop guidelines: you may use your computer in the classroom to
a) take notes
b) research vocab in class discussion.
c) research topics that closely relate to the instructional material.
d) develop multi-media reports for this class.
Off task? Usage will be banned for a week or longer.
Need a computer because family finances do not permit replacement or purchase at this time? Please drop a note with your name, phone and parent name. I can get you a used computer - complimentary - from Howard Ross, of the North La Jewish Federation.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Center of the world's software & hardware development: Silicon Valley, California
Silicon Valley / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually became a metonym for all the high tech businesses in the area.
Silicon refers to the high concentration of semiconductor and computer-related industries in the area; Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s, journalists often referred to it as Silicone Valley. This was before the name became commonplace in American culture. Unfamiliar with silicon, writers assumed that it was a misspelling of silicone, a material used in caulking, breast implants, and other products that had recently been introduced to the public.[1]
The San Francisco Bay Area had long been a major site of U.S. Navy work, as well as the site of the Navy's large research airfield at Moffett Field. A number of technology firms had set up shop in the area around Moffett to serve the Navy.
When the Navy moved most of its West Coast operations to San Diego, NASA took over portions of Moffett for aeronautics research. Many of the original companies stayed, while new ones moved in. The immediate area was soon filled with aerospace firms.
However, there was almost no civilian "high-tech" industry in the area. Although there were a number of excellent schools in the area, graduating students almost always moved to Los Angeles County to find work. This was particularly annoying to Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University.
He decided that a vast area of unused Stanford land was perfect for real estate development, and set up a program to encourage students to stay in the area by enabling them to easily find venture capital.
One of the major success stories of the program was that it convinced two students to stay in the area, William Hewlett and David Packard.
In 1939, they founded Hewlett-Packard, which would go on to be one of the first "high tech" firms in the area that was not directly related to NASA or the U.S. Navy.
In 1951 the program was again expanded with the creation of the Stanford Research Park, a series of small industrial buildings that were rented out at very low costs to technical companies. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, founded by alumni in the 1930s to build military radar components. Today this sort of office space is commonplace and referred to as a technology incubator, but at the time it was practically unknown.
It was in this atmosphere that a former Californian decided to move to the area. William Shockley had quit Bell Labs in 1953 in a disagreement over the way the transistor had been presented to the public which, due to patent concerns, led to his name being sidelined in favor of his co-inventors In 1956 he moved to Mountain View, California to create the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as part of Beckman Instruments and to live closer to his aging mother.
In 1957 eight of the talented engineers he had brought to the West Coast left and formed Fairchild Semiconductor.
Over the next few years this pattern would repeat itself several times, as engineers lost control of their own startups to outside management, and then left to form new companies. AMD, Signetics, National Semiconductor, and Intel all started as offshoots from Fairchild, or alternatively as offshoots of other offshoots.
By the early 1970s there were many semiconductor companies in the area, computer firms using their devices, and programming and service companies serving both. Industrial space was plentiful and housing was still inexpensive.
The growth was fueled by the emergence of the venture capital industry; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion Initial Public Offering of Apple Computer in December 1980.
The Valley also significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces. Using money from NASA and the U.S. Air Force, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse and the graphical user interface in the mid-1960s while at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). When Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center went into decline due to personal conflicts and the loss of government funding, Xerox picked up many of Engelbart's best researchers.
In turn, in the 1970s and 1980s, Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) played a pivotal role in object-oriented programming, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers.
Hewlett-Packard is credited with inventing the ink jet printer, while Ampex (in Redwood City) is credited with inventing the video cassette recorder.
The diaspora of Xerox inventions led directly to 3Com and Adobe Systems, and indirectly to Cisco, Apple Computer and Microsoft. Apple's Macintosh GUI was largely a result of Steve Jobs' visit to PARC and the subsequent hiring of key personnel.
There are contradictions in the Valley's successes as well. As David Naguib Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park claim in one of their recent works about the area:
"While typically lauded as the engine of the high-tech global economy and a generator of wealth for millions, Silicon Valley is also home to some of the most toxic industries in the nation, and perhaps the world. Next to the nuclear industry, the production of electronics and computer components contaminates the air, land, water, and human bodies with a nearly unrivaled intensity.
"The Valley is also a site of extreme social inequality. It is home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States, yet the area has also experienced some of the greatest declines in wages for working-class residents of any city in the nation. Homes are bought and sold for millions of dollars each day, yet thousands of fully employed residents live in homeless shelters in San Jose, the self-proclaimed 'Capital of Silicon Valley.'
Silicon Valley also leads the nation in the numbers of temporary workers per capita and in workforce gender inequities. Moreover, the region has an entirely non-unionized workforce and is as racially segregated as the most big urban centers."
Although semiconductors are still a major component of the area's economy, Silicon Valley has been most famous in recent years for innovations in software and Internet services. Silicon Valley continues to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world.
Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley; among those, the following are in the Forbes 500:
Advanced Micro Devices
Apple Computer
eBay
Intel
Google
Oracle
Yahoo!
Adobe Systems
Cisco Systems
DreamWorks Animation
eBay
Google
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Logitech
Maxtor
National Semiconductor
Oracle Corporation
Pixar Animation
Sun Microsystems
Symantec
Yahoo!
Netscape (acquired by AOL)
Palm, Inc.
PayPal (now part of eBay)
TiVo
Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually became a metonym for all the high tech businesses in the area.
Silicon refers to the high concentration of semiconductor and computer-related industries in the area; Valley refers to the Santa Clara Valley, located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay.
For many years in the 1970s and 1980s, journalists often referred to it as Silicone Valley. This was before the name became commonplace in American culture. Unfamiliar with silicon, writers assumed that it was a misspelling of silicone, a material used in caulking, breast implants, and other products that had recently been introduced to the public.[1]
The San Francisco Bay Area had long been a major site of U.S. Navy work, as well as the site of the Navy's large research airfield at Moffett Field. A number of technology firms had set up shop in the area around Moffett to serve the Navy.
When the Navy moved most of its West Coast operations to San Diego, NASA took over portions of Moffett for aeronautics research. Many of the original companies stayed, while new ones moved in. The immediate area was soon filled with aerospace firms.
However, there was almost no civilian "high-tech" industry in the area. Although there were a number of excellent schools in the area, graduating students almost always moved to Los Angeles County to find work. This was particularly annoying to Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University.
He decided that a vast area of unused Stanford land was perfect for real estate development, and set up a program to encourage students to stay in the area by enabling them to easily find venture capital.
One of the major success stories of the program was that it convinced two students to stay in the area, William Hewlett and David Packard.
In 1939, they founded Hewlett-Packard, which would go on to be one of the first "high tech" firms in the area that was not directly related to NASA or the U.S. Navy.
In 1951 the program was again expanded with the creation of the Stanford Research Park, a series of small industrial buildings that were rented out at very low costs to technical companies. Its first tenant was Varian Associates, founded by alumni in the 1930s to build military radar components. Today this sort of office space is commonplace and referred to as a technology incubator, but at the time it was practically unknown.
It was in this atmosphere that a former Californian decided to move to the area. William Shockley had quit Bell Labs in 1953 in a disagreement over the way the transistor had been presented to the public which, due to patent concerns, led to his name being sidelined in favor of his co-inventors In 1956 he moved to Mountain View, California to create the Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory as part of Beckman Instruments and to live closer to his aging mother.
In 1957 eight of the talented engineers he had brought to the West Coast left and formed Fairchild Semiconductor.
Over the next few years this pattern would repeat itself several times, as engineers lost control of their own startups to outside management, and then left to form new companies. AMD, Signetics, National Semiconductor, and Intel all started as offshoots from Fairchild, or alternatively as offshoots of other offshoots.
By the early 1970s there were many semiconductor companies in the area, computer firms using their devices, and programming and service companies serving both. Industrial space was plentiful and housing was still inexpensive.
The growth was fueled by the emergence of the venture capital industry; the availability of venture capital exploded after the successful $1.3 billion Initial Public Offering of Apple Computer in December 1980.
The Valley also significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces. Using money from NASA and the U.S. Air Force, Doug Engelbart invented the mouse and the graphical user interface in the mid-1960s while at Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). When Engelbart's Augmentation Research Center went into decline due to personal conflicts and the loss of government funding, Xerox picked up many of Engelbart's best researchers.
In turn, in the 1970s and 1980s, Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) played a pivotal role in object-oriented programming, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), Ethernet, PostScript, and laser printers.
Hewlett-Packard is credited with inventing the ink jet printer, while Ampex (in Redwood City) is credited with inventing the video cassette recorder.
The diaspora of Xerox inventions led directly to 3Com and Adobe Systems, and indirectly to Cisco, Apple Computer and Microsoft. Apple's Macintosh GUI was largely a result of Steve Jobs' visit to PARC and the subsequent hiring of key personnel.
There are contradictions in the Valley's successes as well. As David Naguib Pellow and Lisa Sun-Hee Park claim in one of their recent works about the area:
"While typically lauded as the engine of the high-tech global economy and a generator of wealth for millions, Silicon Valley is also home to some of the most toxic industries in the nation, and perhaps the world. Next to the nuclear industry, the production of electronics and computer components contaminates the air, land, water, and human bodies with a nearly unrivaled intensity.
"The Valley is also a site of extreme social inequality. It is home to more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in the United States, yet the area has also experienced some of the greatest declines in wages for working-class residents of any city in the nation. Homes are bought and sold for millions of dollars each day, yet thousands of fully employed residents live in homeless shelters in San Jose, the self-proclaimed 'Capital of Silicon Valley.'
Silicon Valley also leads the nation in the numbers of temporary workers per capita and in workforce gender inequities. Moreover, the region has an entirely non-unionized workforce and is as racially segregated as the most big urban centers."
Although semiconductors are still a major component of the area's economy, Silicon Valley has been most famous in recent years for innovations in software and Internet services. Silicon Valley continues to maintain its status as one of the top research and development centers in the world.
Thousands of high technology companies are headquartered in Silicon Valley; among those, the following are in the Forbes 500:
Advanced Micro Devices
Apple Computer
eBay
Intel
Oracle
Yahoo!
Adobe Systems
Cisco Systems
DreamWorks Animation
eBay
Hewlett-Packard
Intel
Logitech
Maxtor
National Semiconductor
Oracle Corporation
Pixar Animation
Sun Microsystems
Symantec
Yahoo!
Netscape (acquired by AOL)
Palm, Inc.
PayPal (now part of eBay)
TiVo
Friday art in geo: a representation of Los Angeles' latest blockbuster, Walt Disney Concert Hall
Friday's arts & craft project in geography will be to create a 3-d representation of the spectacular Disney Hall - in paper. The building, designed by architect Frank Gehry, is one of the world's stunning architectural moments.
Your representation will be attached to your map of Los Angeles and annotated with facts on the hall and on Gehry, as well as basics on LA.
I will offer info handouts on Disney Hall and Gehry.You will use your imagination, scissors, glue and colors to capture one of the world's wild spots.
Your representation will be attached to your map of Los Angeles and annotated with facts on the hall and on Gehry, as well as basics on LA.
I will offer info handouts on Disney Hall and Gehry.You will use your imagination, scissors, glue and colors to capture one of the world's wild spots.
What constitutes Studying or Homework for geography class?
At the moment, homework or studying for geography class consists of
a) reading the notes and handouts posted on mondotrudeau.
b) reviewing your class notes and handouts.
c) printing out mondotrudeau notes on Wed afternoon for the Thursday open-notes quiz.
d) making sure you have your Rand McNally Quick Reference World Atlas (RMQRWA) for the quiz Thurs.
e) perusing the RMQRWA.
f) having scissors & colors for the Friday hands-on craft session.
a) reading the notes and handouts posted on mondotrudeau.
b) reviewing your class notes and handouts.
c) printing out mondotrudeau notes on Wed afternoon for the Thursday open-notes quiz.
d) making sure you have your Rand McNally Quick Reference World Atlas (RMQRWA) for the quiz Thurs.
e) perusing the RMQRWA.
f) having scissors & colors for the Friday hands-on craft session.
Notes on California, the San Andreas Fault and Los Angeles
California remains a land of opportunity. It has a world of beauty, wealth, brains and moxie.
Here's what wikipedia says about the state:
California is a state spanning the southern half of the west coast of the contiguous United States. With a population of 37 million and an area of 158,402 square miles (410,000 km²), California is the largest U.S. state in population and the third largest in area.
Historically, California had the highest density and greatest diversity of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States.
Although the state's sunny climate has given it a historic reputation for being laid back compared to the East Coast, the $1.55 trillion (as of 2005) California economy is larger than all but the top 7 national economies in the world [1] and is responsible for 13% of the United States' $13 trillion gross domestic product (GDP).
The state's predominant industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism. California is also the home of several significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and the Wine Country (wine).
It is the third largest state in the U.S and is larger than Germany in size.
The hot, fertile Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows a large portion of America's food. The southern part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley (drained by the San Joaquin River), while the northern half is known as the Sacramento Valley (drained by the Sacramento River).
In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), which include the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world-famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe,
About 35% of the state's total surface area is covered by forests. California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. Though other states have a higher percentage of their land area covered by forests, in terms of total area, California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska.
Along the densely populated and long California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Santa Ana-Irvine-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino, California and San Diego. Climates near the Pacific Ocean are remarkably moderate compared with inland climates. Winter temperatures seldom reach freezing and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (low 30's Celsius).
California is the most populous state—more than 12 percent of U.S. citizens live in the state. California's population is larger than all but 33 countries. About four million more people live in California than in all of Canada.
California has eight of the top 50 US cities in terms of population. Los Angeles is the nation's second largest city with a population of 3,845,541 people, followed by San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (14th), Long Beach (34th), Fresno (37th), Sacramento (38th) and Oakland (44th).
California lacks a majority ethnic group. It is the third minority-majority state, after Hawaii and New Mexico. Non-Hispanic Whites are still the largest group while Hispanics make up over one-third of the population; in order, other groups are Asians, Blacks, and Native Americans.
As of 2005, California's economy is larger than all but seven national economies in the world.[3] California is responsible for 13% of the United States gross domestic product (GDP), while the state population constitute only 12% of the United States population. The gross state product (GSP) is about $1.55 trillion ($1,550,000,000,000, as of 2004), making it greater than that of every other U.S. state, and most countries in the world (by Purchasing Power Parity).
The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next, is agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). This is followed by aerospace; entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many movies are still made in California; light manufacturing, including computer hardware and software; and the mining of borax.
Per capita personal income was $33,403 as of 2003, ranking 12th in the nation.
The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States.
Major league teams
Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
National Basketball Association
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Sacramento Kings
National Football League
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
National Hockey League
Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Major League Soccer
Club Deportivo Chivas USA
Los Angeles Galaxy
Other teams
National Lacrosse League
San Jose Stealth
Major League Lacrosse
San Francisco Dragons
Los Angeles Riptide
Arena Football League
San Jose Sabercats
Los Angeles Avengers
American Basketball Association
Beijing Aoshen Olympian
Carson Buzz
Fresno Heatwave
San Diego Wildcats
Continental Basketball Association
San Jose SkyRockets
Women's National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Sparks
Sacramento Monarchs
The San Andreas Fault is a geological fault that runs a length of roughly 800 miles (1287 kilometres) through western and southern California in the United States. The fault, a right-lateral strike-slip fault, marks a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate.
A study completed by Yuri Fialko, an associate professor at the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (an academic unit of the University of California, San Diego), published in the June 22, 2006 edition of the journal Nature, has demonstrated that the San Andreas fault has been stressed to a level sufficient for the next "big one", as it its commonly called, that is, an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or greater. The study also concluded that the risk of a large earthquake may be increasing faster than researchers had previously believed. Fialko also emphasized in his study that, while the San Andreas Fault has experienced massive earthquakes in 1857 at its central section and in 1906 at its northern segment (the great San Francisco earthquake), the southern section of the fault has not seen a similar rupture in at least 300 years.
If such an earthquake were to occur, Fialko's study stated, it would result in substantial damage to Palm Springs and a number of other cities in San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties in California. Such an event would be felt throughout much of Southern California, including densely populated areas of metropolitan Los Angeles and San Diego.
"All these data suggest that the fault is ready for the next big earthquake but exactly when the triggering will happen and when the earthquake will occur we cannot tell," Fialko said. "It could be tomorrow or it could be 10 years or more from now," he concluded
Los Angeles, known as "L.A." or the "City of Angels", is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. As of the 2005 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 3.8 million. The city is the core cultural and economic center of the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area with a population of 12.9 million.[1]
Men and women gather around the Plaza Church (Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles) sometime between 1890 and 1900. The block building features an arched doorway, ocular windows, and a gazebo-like structure mounted on the roof. Faint impressions of paintings on the exterior of the building are evident.
The Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 by a group of Mexican pobladeros (settlers).
The Hispanic, Asian American, and Caribbean populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian American population is the largest of any city in the U.S and the city contains the largest concentration of Los Angeles County's 1.4 million Asians. Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Armenians, Cambodians, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Hungarians, Koreans, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Thais in the world outside of their respective countries. Los Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Japanese and Persians living in the U.S., and has one of the largest Native American populations in the country.
Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little Tokyo, and Thai Town give testimony to the polyglot character of Los Angeles and its unique diversity.
Here's what wikipedia says about the state:
California is a state spanning the southern half of the west coast of the contiguous United States. With a population of 37 million and an area of 158,402 square miles (410,000 km²), California is the largest U.S. state in population and the third largest in area.
Historically, California had the highest density and greatest diversity of indigenous peoples in what is now the United States.
Although the state's sunny climate has given it a historic reputation for being laid back compared to the East Coast, the $1.55 trillion (as of 2005) California economy is larger than all but the top 7 national economies in the world [1] and is responsible for 13% of the United States' $13 trillion gross domestic product (GDP).
The state's predominant industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism. California is also the home of several significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and the Wine Country (wine).
It is the third largest state in the U.S and is larger than Germany in size.
The hot, fertile Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and grows a large portion of America's food. The southern part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley (drained by the San Joaquin River), while the northern half is known as the Sacramento Valley (drained by the Sacramento River).
In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), which include the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world-famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe,
About 35% of the state's total surface area is covered by forests. California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. Though other states have a higher percentage of their land area covered by forests, in terms of total area, California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska.
Along the densely populated and long California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Santa Ana-Irvine-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino, California and San Diego. Climates near the Pacific Ocean are remarkably moderate compared with inland climates. Winter temperatures seldom reach freezing and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (low 30's Celsius).
California is the most populous state—more than 12 percent of U.S. citizens live in the state. California's population is larger than all but 33 countries. About four million more people live in California than in all of Canada.
California has eight of the top 50 US cities in terms of population. Los Angeles is the nation's second largest city with a population of 3,845,541 people, followed by San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (14th), Long Beach (34th), Fresno (37th), Sacramento (38th) and Oakland (44th).
California lacks a majority ethnic group. It is the third minority-majority state, after Hawaii and New Mexico. Non-Hispanic Whites are still the largest group while Hispanics make up over one-third of the population; in order, other groups are Asians, Blacks, and Native Americans.
As of 2005, California's economy is larger than all but seven national economies in the world.[3] California is responsible for 13% of the United States gross domestic product (GDP), while the state population constitute only 12% of the United States population. The gross state product (GSP) is about $1.55 trillion ($1,550,000,000,000, as of 2004), making it greater than that of every other U.S. state, and most countries in the world (by Purchasing Power Parity).
The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next, is agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). This is followed by aerospace; entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many movies are still made in California; light manufacturing, including computer hardware and software; and the mining of borax.
Per capita personal income was $33,403 as of 2003, ranking 12th in the nation.
The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States.
Major league teams
Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
San Diego Padres
San Francisco Giants
National Basketball Association
Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Clippers
Los Angeles Lakers
Sacramento Kings
National Football League
Oakland Raiders
San Diego Chargers
San Francisco 49ers
National Hockey League
Anaheim Ducks
Los Angeles Kings
San Jose Sharks
Major League Soccer
Club Deportivo Chivas USA
Los Angeles Galaxy
Other teams
National Lacrosse League
San Jose Stealth
Major League Lacrosse
San Francisco Dragons
Los Angeles Riptide
Arena Football League
San Jose Sabercats
Los Angeles Avengers
American Basketball Association
Beijing Aoshen Olympian
Carson Buzz
Fresno Heatwave
San Diego Wildcats
Continental Basketball Association
San Jose SkyRockets
Women's National Basketball Association
Los Angeles Sparks
Sacramento Monarchs
The San Andreas Fault is a geological fault that runs a length of roughly 800 miles (1287 kilometres) through western and southern California in the United States. The fault, a right-lateral strike-slip fault, marks a transform boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate.
A study completed by Yuri Fialko, an associate professor at the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (an academic unit of the University of California, San Diego), published in the June 22, 2006 edition of the journal Nature, has demonstrated that the San Andreas fault has been stressed to a level sufficient for the next "big one", as it its commonly called, that is, an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 or greater. The study also concluded that the risk of a large earthquake may be increasing faster than researchers had previously believed. Fialko also emphasized in his study that, while the San Andreas Fault has experienced massive earthquakes in 1857 at its central section and in 1906 at its northern segment (the great San Francisco earthquake), the southern section of the fault has not seen a similar rupture in at least 300 years.
If such an earthquake were to occur, Fialko's study stated, it would result in substantial damage to Palm Springs and a number of other cities in San Bernardino, Riverside and Imperial counties in California. Such an event would be felt throughout much of Southern California, including densely populated areas of metropolitan Los Angeles and San Diego.
"All these data suggest that the fault is ready for the next big earthquake but exactly when the triggering will happen and when the earthquake will occur we cannot tell," Fialko said. "It could be tomorrow or it could be 10 years or more from now," he concluded
Los Angeles, known as "L.A." or the "City of Angels", is the largest city in the state of California and the second-largest in the United States. As of the 2005 U.S. Census estimate, the city had a population of 3.8 million. The city is the core cultural and economic center of the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area with a population of 12.9 million.[1]
Men and women gather around the Plaza Church (Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles) sometime between 1890 and 1900. The block building features an arched doorway, ocular windows, and a gazebo-like structure mounted on the roof. Faint impressions of paintings on the exterior of the building are evident.
The Mission Nuestra Señora Reina de los Angeles was founded on September 4, 1781 by a group of Mexican pobladeros (settlers).
The Hispanic, Asian American, and Caribbean populations are growing particularly quickly — the Asian American population is the largest of any city in the U.S and the city contains the largest concentration of Los Angeles County's 1.4 million Asians. Los Angeles hosts the largest populations of Armenians, Cambodians, Filipinos, Guatemalans, Hungarians, Koreans, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Thais in the world outside of their respective countries. Los Angeles is also home to the largest populations of Japanese and Persians living in the U.S., and has one of the largest Native American populations in the country.
Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries, who speak at least 224 different languages. Ethnic enclaves like Chinatown, Historic Filipinotown, Koreatown, Little Armenia, Little Ethiopia, Little Persia, Little Tokyo, and Thai Town give testimony to the polyglot character of Los Angeles and its unique diversity.
Part of Silicon Valley: Apple Campus, Cupertino, Ca
Aug 14 Mon
Information overload?
Info management skills in the quiz Thur, Aug 17.
Please see essay guidelines on 1st handout.
Why is California one of the world’s most important states?
- population
- agriculture (almonds, citrus, lettuce, flowers, grapes, raisins, etc)
- harbors on the Pacific Rim (trade w Japan, China, etc)
- education (UCLA, USC, Stanford, etc)
- entertainment / Hollywood
- communications (TV, magazines, web sites)
- social trends: health food movement, health spas, relaxed clothing,
skateboarding, hot rods & custom cars, choppers, Barbie, hippies, etc)
*** Graph the difference between the populations of Louisiana and California.
Handout for note-taking in class: Silicon Valley
Make a map of CA and color it:
San Francisco & the Bay area - Oakland, Berkeley (UC Berkeley)
Los Angeles
San Diego
Sacramento
Sierra Nevada (“mtns, snow”)
Coast Range
Colorado R.
Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Mexico (Tijuana, Baja Peninsula)
Pacific
Pacific Rim
San Andreas fault (cataclysm)
Make a map of Los Angeles and color it:
Beverly Hills
Hollywood
Malibu
Santa Monica
Venice Beach
LAX (airport)
Disneyland (Anaheim)
Central & East LA
Orange County
Laguna Beach
Cal pop: 35.5 M / La: 4.5 M (pre-Katrina) graph them, please.
LA: 13.1 M NO: 1.2 M (pre-Katrina)
Spt: 200,000
Bossier City: 60,000
trudeau@earthlink.net
cmhs.com
Congressman Jim McCrery, R
eucalyptus
Laptop guidelines, coming in a bit.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
Target bargain: 256 mb USB drive for $13, according to S'pt newspaper ad
Target bargain: 256 mb USB drive for $13, according to local newspaper ad
Originally uploaded by trudeau.
* store projects and open them up at home or in the library or your mom's office or grandfather's house.
* store writing Or powerpoint-type projects.
* store photos.
* store music, too.
They replace the diskette. Diskettes are frustratingly easy to damage and quick to fail. Saving to a CD usually means the material is frozen.
A flash drive lasts years and is endlessly erasable and loadable. I've used 2 of them for maybe 3 years now - a 128 mb and a 256 mb - and they're super effective. One way I use them is transfer material from my desktop computer to the laptop. I often move projects from home to school on a flash drive.
See background on the flash drive at wikipedia.org.
There is a cheap alternative: send your material to a site such as Yousendit.com. They will store a large file for one week, free. You can download it anywhere. Not quite the same utility and ease of a USB drive, but an important item to know.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Measuring global warming: traditional global surface mean (as in average)
Says Paul Fraser at ems.pdu.edu, The greenhouse effect and global warming ARE NOT the same thing.
There is a greenhouse effect, but, if there were not, we would all be dead.
It is becoming increasingly clear that we are also experencing global warming, but, that is a different matter.
The greenhouse effect is the name applied to the process which causes the surface of the Earth to be warmer than it would have been in the absence of an atmosphere. (Unfortunately, the name, greenhouse effect is a misnomer --- more on that later.)
Global warming is the name given to an expected increase in the magnitude of the greenhouse effect, whereby the surface of the Earth will amost inevitably become hotter than it is now.
Earth has warmed by about 1ºF over the past 100 years. But why? And how? Well, scientists are not exactly sure. The Earth could be getting warmer on its own, but many of the world's leading climate scientists think that things people do are helping to make the Earth warmer.
Global Warming: Global warming refers to an average increase in the Earth's temperature, which in turn causes changes in climate. A warmer Earth may lead to changes in rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. When scientists talk about the issue of climate change, their concern is about global warming caused by human activities, says
www.epa.gov/globalwarming/kids/gw.html
Google, Global Warming and more; notes from Fri, Aug 11
Sketch map of China - 5 identifications:
3 cities, 1 body of water, 2 neighbors.
The skill of documentation, formal (footnotes, as in wikipedia.org) & informal (according to ...), is also called attribution; also citation.
Abbreviate World Geography, A Global Perspective: WG.
Class notes from reading, lecture and the board: space them well.
august: important
Thu Aug 17, open notes quiz.
- Prep each day: Write an example question and give it to a classmate.
Getting an atlas: La Boardwalk / Borders Books
Order from Amazon.com
Brief essay: China’s exploding economy and the new middle class has createde a need for cars - which need petroleum. China - of a sudden - makes a substantial demand for oil. Thus the consumerism of the rising Chinese middle class is part of the reason our prices stand at almost $3 gal.
Outsourcing: having work done outside our nation so as to save money. Ex: tech support via phone being done by people in Taiwan, Philippines, Canada, etc.
Activity:
Write brief notes on this article (see this website): “Google Inc.”
* Skip lines.
* Use one to 3 words.
Match your notes with mine afterwards. Ask questions about why there might be a difference.
Silicon valley / Google Inc, p.1
- 1998
- most-used search engine
- Mt View, Ca
- Eric Schmidt, CEO / triumvirate
- Larry Page, co-founder
- misspelling “googol “ / 1 followed by a hundred zeros
- verb: “to google”
Google 54% market share
Yahoo 23%
MSN 13%
* Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Stanford U.
p. 2
* Palo Alto, Ca (“tall pole”), home of Stanford University.
* Silicon Valley: home to software and computer developers such as Apple, H-P, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others. Lies between san Francisco and San Jose.
* Google's simple, uncluttered design
* selling ads
* revenue based on no of hits on ads
Sergey Brin:
entrepreneur
Russian
billionaire
emigrated from Moscow at 6
father& mother are mathematicians.
loved math and computers.
U of Maryland, BS degree.
Stanford, Masters degree.
loved data-mining and pattern extraction.
made website for film ratings.
Both Page and Brin give credit to Montessori school educations for some of their success. Maria Montessori was an Italian doctor who created an educational plan with emphasis on independent learning.
Also in the news:
$500 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recent gift to world health agencies.
3 cities, 1 body of water, 2 neighbors.
The skill of documentation, formal (footnotes, as in wikipedia.org) & informal (according to ...), is also called attribution; also citation.
Abbreviate World Geography, A Global Perspective: WG.
Class notes from reading, lecture and the board: space them well.
august: important
Thu Aug 17, open notes quiz.
- Prep each day: Write an example question and give it to a classmate.
Getting an atlas: La Boardwalk / Borders Books
Order from Amazon.com
Brief essay: China’s exploding economy and the new middle class has createde a need for cars - which need petroleum. China - of a sudden - makes a substantial demand for oil. Thus the consumerism of the rising Chinese middle class is part of the reason our prices stand at almost $3 gal.
Outsourcing: having work done outside our nation so as to save money. Ex: tech support via phone being done by people in Taiwan, Philippines, Canada, etc.
Activity:
Write brief notes on this article (see this website): “Google Inc.”
* Skip lines.
* Use one to 3 words.
Match your notes with mine afterwards. Ask questions about why there might be a difference.
Silicon valley / Google Inc, p.1
- 1998
- most-used search engine
- Mt View, Ca
- Eric Schmidt, CEO / triumvirate
- Larry Page, co-founder
- misspelling “googol “ / 1 followed by a hundred zeros
- verb: “to google”
Google 54% market share
Yahoo 23%
MSN 13%
* Larry Page & Sergey Brin, Stanford U.
p. 2
* Palo Alto, Ca (“tall pole”), home of Stanford University.
* Silicon Valley: home to software and computer developers such as Apple, H-P, Intel, IBM, Sun Microsystems and others. Lies between san Francisco and San Jose.
* Google's simple, uncluttered design
* selling ads
* revenue based on no of hits on ads
Sergey Brin:
entrepreneur
Russian
billionaire
emigrated from Moscow at 6
father& mother are mathematicians.
loved math and computers.
U of Maryland, BS degree.
Stanford, Masters degree.
loved data-mining and pattern extraction.
made website for film ratings.
Both Page and Brin give credit to Montessori school educations for some of their success. Maria Montessori was an Italian doctor who created an educational plan with emphasis on independent learning.
Also in the news:
$500 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recent gift to world health agencies.
Larry Page(L) and Sergey Brin(R), founders of Google.
Google Inc., says Wikipedia.com, is a U.S. public corporation, first incorporated as a privately held corporation in September, 1998, that designs and manages the Internet's most used search engine. The company employs approximately 8,000 employees and is based in Mountain View, California. Eric Schmidt, former chief executive officer of Novell, was named Google's CEO when co-founder Larry Page stepped down.
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol,"[1][2] which refers to a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Google has had a major impact on online culture. The verb "google" was recently added to both the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."[3][4]
Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux.
While the company does not provide detailed information about its hardware, a 2006 estimate consisted of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around the world (See Google platform for more details on their technology).[5] According to the Nielsen cabinet, Google is the most popular search engine on the web with a 54% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (23%) and MSN (13%). It receives about a billion search requests per day, which are recorded and stored indefinitely "to improve its search engines."[6]
Google began as a research project in January, 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California.[7]
They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).[8] It was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.[9] A small search engine called RankDex was already exploring a similar strategy.[10]Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis
as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine.
Originally the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 14, 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total initial investment raised for the new company eventually amounted to almost US$1 million, including a $100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.[11]
In March, 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. The company settled into their current home in a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, in 2003. The complex has since become known as the Googleplex. Silicon Graphics leased the buildings to Google.
The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual distractions. This appearance, while imitating the early AltaVista, had behind it Google's unique search capabilities.
In 2000 Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of hits users make upon ads. The ads were text-based in order to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click. This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture, then Yahoo! Search Marketing).[12] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.
U.S. Patent 6,285,999 describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (born August 21, 1973) is an American entrepreneur, according to Wikipedia.org. Born in Russia, Brin studied computer science and mathematics before co-founding Google with Larry Page. Brin is currently the President of Technology at Google and has a net worth estimated at $12.9 billion, making him the 26th richest person in the world.
Sergey was born in Moscow, Russia to a Jewish family. At the age of 6, Sergey and his family emigrated to the U.S. to escape anti-Semitism in what was then the U.S.S.R,[2]. His father is Michael Brin, a mathematician who currently works at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he continues to teach today. His mother is Eugenia Brin, a mathematician and civil engineer by training who currently works as a specialist at NASA. Sergey also has a younger brother Samuel Brin.
Sergey attributes his success to many factors. Growing up during the microcomputer revolution, he had an interest in computers from early in his childhood. He received his first computer, a Commodore 64, as a present from his father on his ninth birthday. Sergey's talent for mathematics and computing was apparent during his first years of schooling.
Sergey attended grade school in the U.S. at Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland, but he received further education at home; his father nurtured his interest in mathematics and his family helped him retain his Russian language skills.
In September 1990, after having attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Sergey enrolled in the University of Maryland, College Park to study Computer Science and Mathematics, where he received his Bachelors of Science in May 1993 with
high honors. After graduating from Maryland, Sergey received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which allowed him to study for his masters degree in Computer Science at Stanford University. Sergey received his masters degree in August 1995. Though still enrolled in the Stanford doctoral program, Sergey has suspended his Ph.D. studies indefinitely while he is working at Google.
Sergey expressed interest in the Internet very early on in his studies at Stanford. He authored and co-authored various papers on data-mining and pattern extraction. He also wrote software to ease the process of putting scientific papers often written in TeX, a text processing language, into HTML form, as well as a website for film ratings.
The defining moment for Sergey, however, was when he met future co-president of Google, Larry Page. According to Google lore, Page and Brin "were not terribly fond of each other when they first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995."[3] They soon found a common interest: retrieving relevant information from large data sets. Together, the pair authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine."[4] The paper has since gone on to become the tenth most accessed scientific paper at Stanford University.
Sergey is often invited to speak at conferences and forums for academia, business, and technology. He has appeared on television shows and documentaries, including the Charlie Rose Show, CNBC and CNN. In 2004, he and Larry Page were named "Persons of the Week" by ABC World News Tonight. In January 2005 Sergey Brin was nominated to be one of the World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leaders."
Lawrence Edward "Larry" Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American entrepreneur. Born in Lansing, Michigan, Page studied computer engineering before co-founding the Google internet search engine with Sergey Brin. Page is currently the President of Products at Google Inc. and has a net worth estimated at $12.8 billion.
Page is a graduate of East Lansing High School. Page holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan with honors and a Masters degree from Stanford University.[2] According to his personal website, now archived, his office was in the Gates Computer Science Building.[3]
Larry Page is the son of Dr. Carl Victor Page, a professor of computer science at Michigan State University[4] and Gloria Page, a computer programming teacher at Michigan State University.
While a student in the Ph.D. program in computer science at Stanford University, Page met Sergey Brin. Together they ran the Google search engine, which began operating in 1998. Google is based on patented PageRank technology, which relies on the structure of links between web sites to determine the ranking of an individual site. Page is still "on leave" from the Ph.D. program.
Page ran Google as co-president with Brin until 2001, when they hired Eric Schmidt to become Chairman and CEO of Google. Page now runs Google as a triumvirate along with Brin and Schmidt.
According to Forbes, Page has an estimated net worth of $12.8 Billion, making him the 27th richest person in the world, one place behind co-founder Brin.
The name "Google" originated from a misspelling of "googol,"[1][2] which refers to a 1 followed by one-hundred zeros. Google has had a major impact on online culture. The verb "google" was recently added to both the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."[3][4]
Google's services are run on several server farms, each consisting of thousands of low-cost commodity computers running stripped-down versions of Linux.
While the company does not provide detailed information about its hardware, a 2006 estimate consisted of over 450,000 servers, racked up in clusters located in data centers around the world (See Google platform for more details on their technology).[5] According to the Nielsen cabinet, Google is the most popular search engine on the web with a 54% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (23%) and MSN (13%). It receives about a billion search requests per day, which are recorded and stored indefinitely "to improve its search engines."[6]
Google began as a research project in January, 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California.[7]
They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).[8] It was originally nicknamed "BackRub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.[9] A small search engine called RankDex was already exploring a similar strategy.[10]Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis
as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine.
Originally the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 14, 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total initial investment raised for the new company eventually amounted to almost US$1 million, including a $100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.[11]
In March, 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. The company settled into their current home in a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, in 2003. The complex has since become known as the Googleplex. Silicon Graphics leased the buildings to Google.
The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual distractions. This appearance, while imitating the early AltaVista, had behind it Google's unique search capabilities.
In 2000 Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of hits users make upon ads. The ads were text-based in order to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at $.05 per click. This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture, then Yahoo! Search Marketing).[12] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.
U.S. Patent 6,285,999 describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (born August 21, 1973) is an American entrepreneur, according to Wikipedia.org. Born in Russia, Brin studied computer science and mathematics before co-founding Google with Larry Page. Brin is currently the President of Technology at Google and has a net worth estimated at $12.9 billion, making him the 26th richest person in the world.
Sergey was born in Moscow, Russia to a Jewish family. At the age of 6, Sergey and his family emigrated to the U.S. to escape anti-Semitism in what was then the U.S.S.R,[2]. His father is Michael Brin, a mathematician who currently works at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he continues to teach today. His mother is Eugenia Brin, a mathematician and civil engineer by training who currently works as a specialist at NASA. Sergey also has a younger brother Samuel Brin.
Sergey attributes his success to many factors. Growing up during the microcomputer revolution, he had an interest in computers from early in his childhood. He received his first computer, a Commodore 64, as a present from his father on his ninth birthday. Sergey's talent for mathematics and computing was apparent during his first years of schooling.
Sergey attended grade school in the U.S. at Paint Branch Montessori School in Adelphi, Maryland, but he received further education at home; his father nurtured his interest in mathematics and his family helped him retain his Russian language skills.
In September 1990, after having attended Eleanor Roosevelt High School, Sergey enrolled in the University of Maryland, College Park to study Computer Science and Mathematics, where he received his Bachelors of Science in May 1993 with
high honors. After graduating from Maryland, Sergey received a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which allowed him to study for his masters degree in Computer Science at Stanford University. Sergey received his masters degree in August 1995. Though still enrolled in the Stanford doctoral program, Sergey has suspended his Ph.D. studies indefinitely while he is working at Google.
Sergey expressed interest in the Internet very early on in his studies at Stanford. He authored and co-authored various papers on data-mining and pattern extraction. He also wrote software to ease the process of putting scientific papers often written in TeX, a text processing language, into HTML form, as well as a website for film ratings.
The defining moment for Sergey, however, was when he met future co-president of Google, Larry Page. According to Google lore, Page and Brin "were not terribly fond of each other when they first met as Stanford University graduate students in computer science in 1995."[3] They soon found a common interest: retrieving relevant information from large data sets. Together, the pair authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine."[4] The paper has since gone on to become the tenth most accessed scientific paper at Stanford University.
Sergey is often invited to speak at conferences and forums for academia, business, and technology. He has appeared on television shows and documentaries, including the Charlie Rose Show, CNBC and CNN. In 2004, he and Larry Page were named "Persons of the Week" by ABC World News Tonight. In January 2005 Sergey Brin was nominated to be one of the World Economic Forum's "Young Global Leaders."
Lawrence Edward "Larry" Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American entrepreneur. Born in Lansing, Michigan, Page studied computer engineering before co-founding the Google internet search engine with Sergey Brin. Page is currently the President of Products at Google Inc. and has a net worth estimated at $12.8 billion.
Page is a graduate of East Lansing High School. Page holds a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan with honors and a Masters degree from Stanford University.[2] According to his personal website, now archived, his office was in the Gates Computer Science Building.[3]
Larry Page is the son of Dr. Carl Victor Page, a professor of computer science at Michigan State University[4] and Gloria Page, a computer programming teacher at Michigan State University.
While a student in the Ph.D. program in computer science at Stanford University, Page met Sergey Brin. Together they ran the Google search engine, which began operating in 1998. Google is based on patented PageRank technology, which relies on the structure of links between web sites to determine the ranking of an individual site. Page is still "on leave" from the Ph.D. program.
Page ran Google as co-president with Brin until 2001, when they hired Eric Schmidt to become Chairman and CEO of Google. Page now runs Google as a triumvirate along with Brin and Schmidt.
According to Forbes, Page has an estimated net worth of $12.8 Billion, making him the 27th richest person in the world, one place behind co-founder Brin.
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