Earth


 * A: GROUP LEADER/ ARTICLE FINDER:** CONTROLS THE GROUP DISCUSSION AND FINDS TWO ARTICLES THEY LIKED AND SUMMARIZE THEM
 * B: QUOTES:** FINDS QUOTES THAT STAND OUT, THE GROUP DISCUSSES THEM AT RESPONSES ARE WRITTEN ON THE WIKI
 * C:ALIEN JOURNAL:** THIS PERSON WILL SUMMARIZE THE CHAPTERS READ IN THE BOOK. AT THE END OF THE BOOK CLUB ALL THE SUMMARIES WILL BE PUT INTO A JOURNAL FOR THE ALIENS
 * D: GROUP SUMMARIZER:** THIS PERSON SUMMARIZERS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GROUP MEETING

Week 1 A: Justin B: Tyler C: Glenn D: Grant


 * A: Article Finder- Justin Schwarz **

The two articles I found from our book for this week were called //Oceans// and //Your Changing Planet//. The Oceans article talked about all of the different oceans found across the world, but one of the topics in the article really caught my eye. The topic talked about an area found in the Northern part of the Pacific Ocean. This spot is so unique because it is where the North Pacific Gyre current brings tons upon tons of trash. In this exact spot trash is so built up that it is estimated that the huge ocean landfill can be a staggering 600,000 square-mile build-up. This ocean land-fill was first discovered in 1997 and has since been named the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for obvious reasons. What Your Changing Planet talked about was all of the different things that were discovered in the planet. As well all of the different things that humans do to harm the environment and ecosystem. The one part of this article that really appealed me was the part that talked about global warming. I don't know what was in this article that caught my eye, whether it be the picture of the polar bear floating away on a chunk of ice or the words in the paragraph, but it really just tells you important stopping global warming was. It tells us how global warming came about and as well as what it is doing to our ecosystem.

**B: Quotes- Tyler Gronek**

"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an 600,000 square mile oceanic landfill." -When my group members and I found out about this oceanic landfill, we were shocked. How could people put thousands upon thousands of pounds of trash into one of our earths main food sources. This, if you think about it is potentially killing our food.

"in 2007 a single 1.5-kilogram white truffle was purchased for $330,000 by an man who hated Money." -First off when i read this, i could not believe it. What human being could be so stupid to spend that much money on an mushroom. It says by definition that they are an delicacy that is only found in France, but still if i had 330,000 dollars to spend i would buy an lambo.

"our bodies contain ten times more bacteria cells then human cells." -At first most people probably are grossed out or scared for there health when they read this. But the truth is that not all bacteria cells are bad. Most of the bacteria that live in our bodies do not actually harm us, but more or less actually help us.

"If an saber toothed tiger were to sneeze it would result in instant decapitation." -My group members thought this specific quote was funny. While going over quotes in class, we discussed this one more than the others. We wondered if it was possible that it could happen or even the tiger could stab itself. The saber tooth tiger for those who don't know has about 7 inch k-9s.

"25% of medicine and 30% of our air comes from tropical rain forests in South America." -This quote is actually an interesting piece of information. First off, i could understand that many of our medicines come from here because the mass diversity of plants grown in the rain forests. But the fact that is really interesting is that our air comes from their forests. It is very interesting that air travels thousands and thousands of miles.

Chapter 1 was all about the beginning of earth and space. There were many funny things said in the beginning. But there is so much that is true. In this chapter it explains thins in such a funny way that you don't think is true but it is. When he was explaining the big bang he made fun of it but made a point on what it was. Also he he added small joke in to the naming of the planets. Chapter 2 was full of things that helped explain man kind. There where great things that happened to make man kind great. it showed from the beginning to now and every thing between. every thing even the things that are not important or not even fully true but funny.
 * C:Glenn**

Today's meeting was a huge transition for our group. This is mainly because the type of book we are reading has no definite plot, characters, or morals. The meeting started off with a general discussion of the book, including our favorite sections, our likes and dislikes, and how we were going to format our wiki-space. After a long debate about the requirements for each specific job, we came to conclusion that is subject of change. Anyways, after this long discussion we continued to talk about what we liked about the book. At first, my thoughts about the book was that it was not going to be funny, but I soon found out after reading the first section that is was hilarious. We discussed the content of the book and how it is surprisingly informational despite the comedy. After our general discussion Justin picked the two articles that he enjoyed. One of them talked about the various oceans and how the book was telling aliens how humans polluted and destroyed our own oceans. The next article that we talked about was Global Warming. Justin shared with us the various funny pictures which also contained factual information. Next, Tyler discussed his 5 quotes from the book, which were very funny. In comparison with Justin with Tyler we also discussed the environment through his quotes giving him our opinions. This meeting was a great success but mainly was mainly focused on creating our wiki-space.
 * D: Grant**

**A: GROUP LEADER/ARTICLE FINDER:** CONTROLS THE GROUP DISCUSSION AND FINDS TWO ARTICLES THEY LIKED AND SUMMARIZE THEM **B: QUOTES:** FINDS QUOTES THAT STAND OUT, THE GROUP DISCUSSES THEM AT RESPONSES ARE WRITTEN ON THE WIKI **C:ALIEN JOURNAL:** THIS PERSON WILL SUMMARIZE THE CHAPTERS READ IN THE BOOK. AT THE END OF THE BOOK CLUB ALL THE SUMMARIES WILL BE PUT INTO A JOURNAL FOR THE ALIENS **D: GROUP SUMMARIZER:** THIS PERSON SUMMARIZERS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GROUP MEETING

A Grant B Justin C Tyler D Glenn
 * Week2**

**__Childhood__** This week’s chapter was the life cycle. The article I chose was childhood. This article explained through satire what a child life was like. This was an example of satire because they poked fun at a child’s life in order to make a point that a childhood is the easiest point in a human’s life. There were many funny things in this section such as how kids have imaginary friends or that there crappy drawings of their imaginary friends would end up on your refrigerator. The author also explains important beloved characters, school, and the Bogeymen Through humor; John Stewart describes childhood in a very direct way. He helps the “aliens” learn exactly what childhood is like through pictures and a little bit of comedy. **__Middle Age__** ==== In this article John Stewart talks about the phase of life Middle Age. According to Stewart, Middle Age age marked the decline and recognition of one’s morality. This means that there muscle mass and intellect start to decline. Also, how many people experience a midlife crisis, Stewart humors this by explaining how a midlife crisis in America is a “midlife opportunity in China. One humorous passage depicted the humor of men always unbuttoning their polo’s to show that not all hair was receding. This article explained the suffering during middle age with pictures and comedy. ====
 * A: Group Leader- Grant**

“As exemplified by this SS emblem, the Nazis were on of the few political movements to admit right off the bat that they were evil” “We frequently placed onerous taxes on things we like but knew were bad for us, in order to discourage us from buying them. The end result was that our governments were largely funded. “One of our core beliefs was that criminals could be rehabilitated by locking them up with other criminals in dehumanizing conditions.” “Railways and roads provided humans with convenient commuter travel and industrial transport.” “When we worked together, there was no obstacle we couldn't conquer.”
 * B: Quotes- Justin Schwarz**
 * This quote shows that one of the most evil, powerful groups of leadership during its time knew what they were doing and didn't do anything about it. When today if a group like this came around, almost certainly they wouldn't be able to have the “success” that this group did.
 * This quote shows that no matter what people will always get something that they really want no matter what the price of the object is. This quote is so true now-a-days too because the government keeps bumping up the tax on cigarettes and people will still buy them just to fit their needs.
 * This quote is true because if you think about it, wouldn't locking a guy up in a jail where he gets involved in more criminal activity like gang related incidents just make him more likely to commit crime when he gets out?
 * This quote tells us the importance of the invention of railways and roads were. They make the movement of goods and travel much easier and less stressful. They help businesses run stronger and more efficiently than without these tools.
 * This quote just defines everything about completing an obstacle. This quote just proves itself throughout history and during present time. For example, during the Revolutionary War the people came together and were able to defeat a more powerful group.

The group went through many things this week. we talked all about the things that we though were the funniest and what was true and different than the world saw it. if you read this book than you will under stand more about our life. i group did not spend that much time working on the other things but we did talk about the quotes but not much of anything else. it is very hard to talk about it because there are so many funny things. it is very easy to get off track and talk all about the funny things.
 * D: Glenn**

**A: GROUP LEADER/ARTICLE FINDER:** CONTROLS THE GROUP DISCUSSION AND FINDS TWO ARTICLES THEY LIKED AND SUMMARIZE THEM **B: QUOTES:** FINDS QUOTES THAT STAND OUT, THE GROUP DISCUSSES THEM AT RESPONSES ARE WRITTEN ON THE WIKI **C:ALIEN JOURNAL:** THIS PERSON WILL SUMMARIZE THE CHAPTERS READ IN THE BOOK. AT THE END OF THE BOOK CLUB ALL THE SUMMARIES WILL BE PUT INTO A JOURNAL FOR THE ALIENS **D: GROUP SUMMARIZER:** THIS PERSON SUMMARIZERS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GROUP MEETING

Week 3 A: Glenn B: Grant C: Justin D: Tyler


 * B. Quotes- Grant Holstein**

When I brought this group toward to our group, we all did not understand. But then we realized how different types of merchandise are sold at different prices. Such as buying a purse at Wal-Mart or buying it at a department stores. This also brought our group to discuss how food is the same way. Such as buying a $10 hotdog at a sports game. The value depends on location
 * 1) “The value of merchandise like this purse depended on where it was sold…” pg 122

We found this quote to be funny, only because it is true. We discussed the job of the middleman and we did not understand why he was needed. This section was true, but provided information about how trading works.
 * 1) “ The job of the middle man was to simply make sure that buyers and sellers would never talk directly”

I choice this quote because it really amazed me. When I brought this quote up during the meeting, my group members were surprised as well. It is scary how many commercials we see each day.
 * 1) “We went from being exposed to one or two ads a day (1900) to 5,000 (2010).” Pg 134

The group and I thought that this was very funny. The book took companies symbols and had what you would expect them to sell and what they actually sold. This is very comical because the symbol for apple is a rainbow apple.
 * 1) “Apple, what would you expect them to sell Gay Apples, What they sold computers.”

5.“Such investments could be low-risk (Bank or mattress deposits or high risk (loaning ones brother-in law $1000 to market the bow-flex rip-off he designed one night in his basement.” We thought this was funny because this was such a perfect example of a bad investment. It seems like it would be in an movie.


 * C: Alien Journals- Justin Schwarz**

This weeks topics during our book were society and commerce. The society section talked about history and what groups of people were dominant in both present and past societies. This section started off talking about nomadic tribes like indians and how they lived, what they used as shelter, and what they used to hunt. Then it stated talking about villages, cities and nation states. For each of these categories the book would discuss what basic life was in these societies. After it finished talking about how these societies lived, they started talking about the dominant groups in these societies. For example, the book talked about the Nazis who dominated Europe for many years. After it talked about these groups the book started discussing how government is run with the topics of law and order, taxation and other topics. The commerce section of the book started talking about trade and the history of trade. They talked about how it was run in ancient days and how it is still alive today. Then the book started discussing the economics. It talked about the important economic thinkers of the past. Some of their names were Adam Smith, John Maynard Keynes, Karl Marx, and Charles Ponzi. After discussing their ideas they started talking about the money that has been in the currency in the past as well as money that is in circulation today. After that they started discussing the work and how it varied based on where you live. For example, they talked about how many people in China work as farmers and in agricultural jobs. Compared to people who live in more commercial and industrial city where most jobs are based on manufacturing.


 * D: Group Summarizer**

This weak our group discussion for the book "Earth" was the best by far. Our two Topics this weak were Commerce and Society. These two chapters were about the roles of people on earth. It talked about the ranks of peoples jobs and what they do. Also these two chapters talk about the lifestyle people live. At first in class, we went over the book as an group as always. We always try to find the funny and interesting facts in the book. Every weak so far we have noticed that John Stewart writes in an different style. When he is discussing something, he sees it in an totally different way, that the normal reader would not think of. Also John Stewart uses a lot of big vocabulary words. Then Grant read out his quotes. Grants quotes were both funny and very interesting. For example i found it very interest how advertisement exploded through the years. After we were done reading the quotes, Justin read his alien journal. He did an very well job on explaining the two chapters to the Aliens.

**A: GROUP LEADER/ARTICLE FINDER:** CONTROLS THE GROUP DISCUSSION AND FINDS TWO ARTICLES THEY LIKED AND SUMMARIZE THEM **B: QUOTES:** FINDS QUOTES THAT STAND OUT, THE GROUP DISCUSSES THEM AT RESPONSES ARE WRITTEN ON THE WIKI **C:ALIEN JOURNAL:** THIS PERSON WILL SUMMARIZE THE CHAPTERS READ IN THE BOOK. AT THE END OF THE BOOK CLUB ALL THE SUMMARIES WILL BE PUT INTO A JOURNAL FOR THE ALIENS **D: GROUP SUMMARIZER:** THIS PERSON SUMMARIZERS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GROUP MEETING

Week 4 A: Tyler B: Glenn C: Grant D: Justin

The two chapters discussed this week religion and science. The first chapter religion focused on the culture and diversity of each religion in a comical yet stereotypical way The chapter begins with polytheism, in which the author focuses on the belief in many gods. He explains the difference of each type of polytheistic religion wether its greek mythology, pagan, or native american. The chapter the explained Monotheism in which it branched to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This chapter is very funny because many of the things the author states is funny yet true. Finally this chapter branched off to the specific types of prayers, rituals, rites, and relics. It also explained some taboos. In the second chapter is discusses science. This explains how humans came about discovering new and innovative things. The author explains that most scientific discoveries was as a result of "accidents". In science it then talks about American advancement in technology of the years. Especially how Humans no matter how technologically advanced an item is, it will always be replaced by something smaller and faster. One point that comes across in this chapter is how back in the day, people used to think bigger was better. But now, people think smaller is better. Towards the end of this chapter, it explains the advancement of weaponry, medicine, and the creation of life!
 * C: Grant Holstein**

**D: Group Summarizer- Justin Schwarz** This week we started off by doing what we do every week, going through the weeks designated sections and finding and discussing our favorite articles in these parts. Our sections for this week were Religion and Science. We found some pretty cool articles in these two sections of the book. Because our discussion leader, Tyler, wasn't here this week we had to improvise and do our discussion without him. To fill Tyler's shoes, Grant took over and did Tyler's role for him. So, he had Glenn share his job for the week. Glenn was in charge of finding the quotes. So, we spent 5 minutes going over the quotes and discussing them. The quotes he came up with were pretty interesting. Next, Grant shared his job for the week. Grant was in charge of the Alien Journal which basically is summarizing the 2 chapters of the book we were in charge of reading. So, Grant read his summary for the Religion and Science sections. Because Tyler wasn't here this weeks discussion was pretty brief and we weren't able to talk about the two articles Tyler summarized. So, to conclude the meeting we just kept looking in the Religion and Science sections to find some funny and interesting articles.


 * A: GROUP LEADER/ ARTICLE FINDER:** CONTROLS THE GROUP DISCUSSION AND FINDS TWO ARTICLES THEY LIKED AND SUMMARIZE THEM
 * B: QUOTES:** FINDS QUOTES THAT STAND OUT, THE GROUP DISCUSSES THEM AT RESPONSES ARE WRITTEN ON THE WIKI
 * C:ALIEN JOURNAL:** THIS PERSON WILL SUMMARIZE THE CHAPTERS READ IN THE BOOK. AT THE END OF THE BOOK CLUB ALL THE SUMMARIES WILL BE PUT INTO A JOURNAL FOR THE ALIENS
 * D: GROUP SUMMARIZER:** THIS PERSON SUMMARIZERS WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GROUP MEETING

Week 5 A: Justin B: Tyler C: Glenn D: Grant

**A: Group Leader- Justin**

In this weeks designated reading, the book focused on the main topic of culture. Under this section they talked about several different categories including music. Under the music section they talked about how music evolved over the decades. They talked about how the different types of music evolved into newer types of music. They talked about how music is evolving from jazz to rock to hip hop. Also, this section talked about how the different types of instruments evolved. It talked about all the different types of ways of getting a sound out of an instrument like some instruments are blown, some are scratched, some are pounded and some are plucked. Overall this section talked about how the music evolved in the past and what it is now. The next article the culture section of the book talked about was television. This article talked about how television was changed forever in 1972 when the invention of color electrons was created. This changed black and white television to colored television. Also, this article talked about the different types of TV shows like sitcom, western, late-night talk shows, medical drama, legal drama and cable news. Under each of these topics it talked about the different types of programs giving a background about this topic. Then it also started talking about the different types of inventions for TV like the DVR, VCR and other inventions like all of the different remotes.

This was the final book club meeting and we are all sad that we will not be doing it again second marking period. Today was the shortest meeting so far because we had to work on our Catcher Projects. Today Justin shared his two favorite articles and Tyler shared his quotes. We mainly discussed what we liked and did not like about the book and would be recommend it to a friend or family member. We all enjoyed reading this book because of its unique writing style and how it is funny, yet contains useful facts and information. We did not get to accomplish that much this meeting, but with the time we were given to discuss, it was very enjoyable Once again, we are all disappointed that nobody brought food to any of the meetings. We hope to accomplish this next time. Overall, reading this book was a great learning experience and we all enjoyed it a lot!
 * D- Summarizer Grant**