First goup presentation

Here is the link to the powerpoint of our presentation.

My favourite three blogs

                                                                           (http://www.clipartof.com/)
I reviewed all the blogs from members in this class. I found that almost everyone did a perfect job on following our procedures. However, I graded them all on the fomat, the content, the source website quality. And my choices are:
1.Kelsey Kubiak- 95/100
I really enjoy reading her blog. She has a smart mind on lay-out. Most of her opinions are easy to understand but impressing. Secondly, I like her blog background which is a red car. It makes the blog more beautiful to see.
2. Donohue, Patrick- 92/100
Patrick's blog is well-orgnized. I can read the efforts he put on his blog. Everything is covered pretty well following the instruments. Furthermore, he added a lot of pictures which made his blog more interesting to view.
3. Owen, Sion - 88/100
He made his blog professionly. It's easy for me to understand what he tried to present. He also did a good job on citing pictures. However, I suggested him to change the background color brighter so that everyone is able to view it more clearly.

All Quiet on the Western Front Review

“All Quiet on the Western Front” written by Erich Maria Remarque may be the definitive anti-war novel. The author describes very carefully and infectiously on the cruelty of war from both perspectives – the fight scene and soldiers’’ feelings. With 8.5 million dead and 20 million injured through the WW1, Paul lost his soul and his friends. I can see his fear and loneliness through those parts which were describing his feeling inside. The author tried to make us believe that the war is a savage force sacrificing men and boys to a patriotic ideal. More than that, the entire book also reflects a lot of shady facts in the community. On Chapter nine, a dialogue between soldiers when the empire is reviewing troops expressed to us what the author is trying to persuade. Empire and his generals all desired to be famous by conducting wars. Actually, the civilians were the final sufferers and forced to pay for the war by their treasures, land, even lives.

On the other hand, I can realize a vehement and urgent argument against the Germany leaders by Erich Maria Remarque. There was no glory in Remarque’s war. No one can get benefits by conducting a war against another regime. However, this warning doesn't make most people awake in Germany. Couple decades later, the WW2 began and finally made a huge lost and damage to the whole world including Germany. German became one of the most aggressive and guilty in the world dictionary.

Competition Questions and Answers

Group 1 questions and answers

Thuringia Facts

Place
Thuringia is known as the "green heart of Germany". It located in the central part of Germany.
border on  Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Bavaria and Hesse.

How many people live there?
2,290,000 people
rank: fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states.

How does its size relate to Minnesota, or any other US State?
16,171 square kilometers. It is a little bigger than Connecticut.
In population, Thuringia equals to the population of New Mexico.

What's special about that State?
As known as the "green heart of Germany", Thuringia has a high density of trees.
Thuringia was named after the Thuringii tribe who occupied it AD 300.
The capital city is Erfurt. It has the oldest evidence of human settlement dates from the prehistoric era.
After WW2, Thuringia was controled under Soviet. It was restored in 1990 during Germany's reunification.

What was the State historically? A kingdom, a duchy, a free city?
Forming a part of Holy Roman Empire, it came under Frankish domination in the 6th century.
After the war of the War of Thurigian succession, the western half part became independent as Hesse. The remaining Thuringia came under the rule of Wettin Dynasty, the center of the later Kingdom of Saxony.


http://www.itcwebdesigns.com/tour_germany/thuringia.htm
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Tourism-g187415-Thuringia-Vacations.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuringia
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/594417/Thuringia

16 German States Pivotal Facts

1. Baden-Württemberg
On the Southwestern corner of Germany
Neckar River runs centrally through the state
2. Bavaria
Germany's second most populous state with 12.5 million of citizens
Some famous companies headquarted in Bavaria include BMW, Siemens, Adidas, Puma.
3. Saarland
Smallest state in Germany
Locates on the border of France and Germany
4.Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate)
Germany's wine state
It has suppied immigrants to many parts of the world
5. Hesse
Home of the Grimm Brothers
The locals speak a Rhine Franconian dialect
6. Thuringia
Known as the "green heart of Germany"
Sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population in Germany
7. Saxony
Has more than  a millennium history
Has the best economy among the former GDR states
8. Nurdrhein-Westfalen (North-Rhine WestPhalia)
is the most populous and economically powerful state among 16 states
the largest city is Köln (Cologne)
9. Saxony-Anhalt
is famous for its good soil
is the largest receiver of foreign direct investments
10. Lower Saxony
is second in area among 16 states
Most of the its territory was part of the historic Kingdom of Hanover
11. Berlin
Capital city of Germany
Largest city in Germany
12. Bremen
Smallest state among 16 states
University of Bremen is very popular and famous
13. Brandenburg
is famous for its well-preserved nature environment
German and sobian are both used in parts of the state
14. Hamburg
Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany
Hamburg State Opera is a leading opera company in Germany
15. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
University of Rostock is the oldest in Europe
Human settlement in the area began after the Ice Age, 10,000 BC
16. Schleswig-Hoistei
the state lies between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea
Wacken Open Air is the largest metal rock festival in the world

Observations about German print media

As far as I know, there are three major types of print media system in the world. The Liberal Model prevails in the U.S and British countries. This model prefers strong norms as "objectivity", balance, and fairness, as well as other ethical norms. And the medias ought  to be seperated from political and parties and it required for high journalistic. And German medias belong to another system model called "democratic corporatize". This model is widely used in Central and Northern European medias. In conrast, this model combined the freedoms with some state intervention which is not allowed in U.S together. It also requried high degree of journalistic and professionlism.
In my observation, I found the U.S newspaper and Germany newspaper are quite similar to each other. Politics, news, sports, news events, and entertainment are all involved. And the classifications of them are pretty much as same as ours in U.S. However, the price of a newspaper in Germany is higher than U.S newpaper. Even so, we can still get access to read it online instead purchase it. What's more, I found that most Germany newspaper was only offerd from Monday to Saturday. But in U.S, the newspaper was being published and printed through the whole week. It's really a good experience for me to know these differences between these two media system.