My classmates and I recently made models to show how erosion affects a certain landscape over thousands of years. I chose to do mine on glacial erosion and to create the landscape on a Sketchup. These photos of a before and after show a glacier cutting through a once connected landform and cutting small lakes and depressions into the rock face.

For the past weeks we have been working on a project on Christian persecution in Syria. Here is a little bit of what we made. This first bit is a video by an organization called Voice of the Martyrs, a group of people fighting Christian persecution all around the world.

syria

This is a link to a slideshow we made on Christian persecution.

Here is a paragraph on an introduction to Christian persecution in Syria and how you can help:

Syria has been locked up in a civil war since 2011, with neither side really appearing as ‘good’ at least not in the classical definition(although most people will probably take the side of the existing Government). The demographic is overwhelmingly Muslim, around 87 percent, many of them with extremist tendencies. Over 700,000 Christians have left Syria since 2011. The strategy that the Christians are fighting the persecution with is simply leaving. Radical Muslim groups have taken control of parts of Syria, and for many of them, killing and plundering Christians is not considered bad or immoral, nor contrary to their faith, in fact many see these murders as ethical and things that they will be rewarded for in the after life. For example the radical group Isis has abducted 240 Christians and is threatening to kill them(at the time of this publication). Things like this are happening more and more. About 1.5 million Christians(roughly six percent of the population) reside in Syria. Many of them have fallen into financial crisis because they are afraid of getting killed while they go to work. Christianity has much worse of a name than before in Syria, as Christianity is now a sign of the existing government for many rebels. The Government, which has become increasingly stable over the past few years but still lacks true political stability as the Syrian civil war is ongoing. The state remains(even after a rewritten constitution and a new Government) largely under Muslim influence, many court cases are determined by Muslim law rather than law of the state. Slightly under half of Syria is controlled by the Syrian Government, the majority is controlled by rebels or the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. This lack of political stability allows for large scale persecution of Christians and other minorities with very little backlash from an organized Government, individuals can execute their will without fear of consequences. Aside from the Governmental troubles, the country’s religious monopoly brings forth a troubling issue, if so many Christians flee Syria then the Muslims will have complete control of the country and would likely turn over to extremist practices, not to say that all Syrians are extremists but without a strong Government or any diversity of religion or beliefs we could see an increasingly dangerous state.

              One of the ways you can help without leaving your living room is through the ministry of Open Doors, a non-profit Christian organization, estimates that roughly 100 million Christians(4.58 percent of Christians) face some sort of persecution, most of this persecution comes from Muslim dominated countries, mainly in the Middle East. In fact, one in 3.97 countries have some form of religious persecution. Religious persecution is now four times as common as racial persecution, because of this staggering number the fight against persecution has shifted from racial persecution(not that this is all conquered) to religious persecution. Think of a country like South Africa, who was brutally exiled from world trade and lost all of its political allies all because of religious reasons, should we not be just as appalled by deteriorating religious acceptance? Is not all persecution, real or perceived on equal grounds? They all do the same thing to us, they distort our vision of reality which is of course inherently bad. I ask not just that we fight for Christians(although Christians have received the bulk of the hits as of now), but also that we fight for Muslims and Hindus and atheists to be free from persecution, religious or otherwise as well. God has given us equal rights among men and the right to live in God-given autonomy, let us not squander it with our feeble minds and childish prejudices. I am asking the world powers of the world to fight for the freedom of religion and ideology. Even though the major Governments of the world have largely ignored religious persecution, many individuals and organizations have done their part here are several of their stories. Many Christians here in America are giving large donations to many persecuted Christians, Bibles are being shipped in large quantities and many Americans are donating their lives to traveling to remote countries to spread the faith.

The Jewish Jerusalem Journal:

March 7, 34 AD

Stephen Convicted, Stoned

Yesterday, Stephen was stoned(so it goes) at 7 PM, by members of the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, a judicial group of seventy-one appointed by each city. Stephen, a leading figure in the rise of Christianity(a religious movement based upon the teachings of a man named Jesus) was brought to court by members of the Synagogue in Jerusalem, the Synagogue is filled with classically believing Jews who spend most of their time studying and interpreting the Torah. Stephen is a member of The church started at a mere one-hundred and twenty men about eight years ago and has grown to presumably about one-thousand devout followers. Christianity is still a highly illegal practice in our Roman empire since it directly contradicts our classical Roman beliefs. Stephen was an appointed deacon, whose job was to give food and aid to lower class members of the Jerusalem area, by the famous twelve disciples and has been described as being “Filled with the faith.” Stephen is a Hellenistic Jew who has fought for equality among humanity. Stephen who by this time last year had started preaching the teachings of Jesus and bested all who challenged him in debate. Stephen has been one of the leading figures in the rise of Christianity but on March 4^th was accused of blasphemy against Moses and God and last night he was tried before the Sanhedrin. Stephen, defending himself against accusations gave a long speech, here is a following excerpt:

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’[b]

4 “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[c] 8 Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

Stephen told everyone to reject idols made by human hands. Stephen’s speech filled with theological brilliance was ignored by the persuasion of the Rabbi’s and Stephen was stoned for twenty-three minutes before falling dead, even in his dying hour he chose to forgive.

This is going to be an application of graphing coordinates in real life. I am going to use Newtonian physics to determine several things about a football, direction, acceleration, and of course coordinates. First off, examine their is a football and two forces are acting upon it. We have measured the first force(which is acting on the positive y-axis and has an x value of zero) to be five newtons of force. The second force(which is acting at on the positive x-axis and has a y value of zero) to be 6.1 newtons of force. Sure, these coordinates are unrealistic and used for mathematical simplicity but this still can be used(if you desire to do this equation for a more realistic angle, the formula is the force times cosine and the forces times sine).

F1=(0, 5)

F2=(6.1, 0)

Add all of these forces together and the force of the football is 6.1 newtons on the x-axis and 5 newtons on the y-axis. We could have negative forces that take away or any conceivable number but these are the two that we have for this. Next, if I wanted to calculate say acceleration from these vector quantities of force I would derive it from Newton’s F=MA and instead use A=F/M, acceleration equals force divided by mass. If the force is 6.1 than the acceleration is 15.25 m/s and if the other force is 5 then our final acceleration is 15.25 m/s on the x-axis and 12.5 m/s on the y-axis. If we wanted to learn the football’s acceleration after 1 second then we would have to use the equation, D=Vi t + 1/2 at2 or velocity initial times time plus 1/2 acceleration time squared.

If we plug in the numbers we know that in one second the football will have traveled 58.14 meters forward and 39.1 meters in the air. We could apply trigonometry to figure out how long the football will stay in the air with some trigonometry(the equation would be the square root of velocity squared times cosine angle times sine angle over acceleration due to gravity) but we will not get into that.

Tree:

I am a tree. Like a tree, I peak during certain times of the year. I train and prepare for one day to prove everything. I wait for one day to peak, I prepare for a year for that day and then when its all over I get back up and start preparing for the next time that peculiar day comes along.

I am a tree. Like a tree, I’m always growing. Always pushing myself to stretch farther, to move faster. To find the limit and reach beyond it. Every year I’m improving, every year I’m just a little closer to reaching out and grabbing the goals life has placed on a pedestal for me.

I am a tree. every year I drop things slowly to the ground, that eventually are swept away by the wind only to be dropped next year. I drop ideas, filled with the naive passion that the next one will be the ultimate success. I drop hopes and dreams, filling up their old places with new shinier objects. They are replaced, never to come back, held captive by the cruel monster that is time. They have no lasting life, no happiness or hope for the future.

I am a tree. I have a thin layer of bark that hides what is truly underneath. What is truly me. The bark is seldom penetrated. The bark is never penetrated. It is a layer that protects the real me, protects it from the light and the world. Hides it away never to be seen. Never to be penetrated.

https://docs.google.com/a/zcsms.org/file/d/0B2H1y6ieGRQxamFIbXRVN3A5Q2M/edit