Thursday, September 27, 2012

A Random read from Yahoo! News... Waking up with foams!!!


Image via Reuters
Image via Reuters from Yahoo! SG
 
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/geekquinox/scottish-village-covered-thick-layer-sea-foam-154550635.html

After reading this article really made me wonder, what other interesting things the nature can bring to us?

In this scottish village, they experienced foams covering their town. And the foams are actually phytoplankton also a type of microalgae.

Want to know more about Phytoplankton?
Refer to this web site: http://www.earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Phytoplankton/

Question to ask...
Is this a normal scene or are we experiencing some real and serious changes?

Signing off,
Evee
My, World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography

Friday, September 14, 2012

My Favourite in different forms in different mood, different weather...

Clouds in heart shaped form
(Image from: http://s716.photobucket.com/albums/ww165/rane_ab/?action=view&current=heart-cloud.jpg)
  I still remember ever since I was in primary school, I love to look into the sky to see the different forms of clouds. They seems to be able to change according to my mood! ^^ I find that clouds have the magic to make one who feels stress or hectic to calm down... It never fails to make me think of things thoroughly and straighten it out thus feeling so much better.
 
  Even up till now, whenever I see beautiful forms of clouds, I will use any cameras that is with me to take down their pictures. And when I went back to see them in my photo albums, they just unknowingly able to bring me back to the calming mind.
 
  It is up till when I was in secondary school time, there was once I went to the library and happened to see a book with many clouds. That is when I finally sound out that clouds comes in different types, different forms of them have different kind of names and characteristics.
 
  The following is some introduction to clouds, its categories and the ten main types of it...

What are clouds?

A cloud is a large collection of very tiny droplets of water or ice crystals. The droplets are so small and light that they can float in the air.

Cloud Chart.

Cloud GroupCloud HeightCloud Types
High Clouds = CirrusAbove 18,000 feetCirrus
Cirrostratus
Cirrocumulus
 
Middle Clouds = Alto6,500 feet to 18,000 feetAltostratus
Altocumulus
 
Low Clouds = StratusUp to 6,500 feetStratus
Stratocumulus
Nimbostratus
 

Clouds with Vertical GrowthCumulus
Cumulonimbus
 
Special CloudsMammatus
Lenticular
Fog
Contrails
 

Cirrus - Appeared to be white, like delicate strands or long streaks, called "mares tails". Made of ice crystals.
Signals: Warning for bad weather to come.
 
Cirrus Clouds
Cirrus cloud


Cirrostratus - Often cover the entire sky with an almost transparent sheet. They make halos appear around the sun or moon.
Signals: Cirrostratus clouds form ahead of storms.


Cirrostratus Clouds
Cirrostratus Cloud


Cirrocumulus - Rippling rows of patchy clouds, which appear like fish scales, known as a "mackerel sky". Cirrocumulus clouds form when the wind changes direction, known as wind shear.
Signals: Signs of precipitation, forming in front of advancing storms.

Cirrocumulus Clouds
Cirrocumulus Cloud
 
Altostratus - Made of ice crystals and water droplets. These appear as a thick gray or bluish-white layer of cloud cover, covering the entire sky. These clouds let the sunlight or moonlight through. Signals: Known to produce widespread snow or rain.

Altostratus Clouds
Altostratus Cloud

Altocumulus - Gray patches forming in bands. These clouds are bigger than cirrocumulus clouds. Altocumulus clouds have sharp edges due the fact that they contain more water droplets than ice crystals.
 
Altocumulus Clouds
Altocumulus Cloud


Stratus - These clouds appear low layered, just above the ground, as wispy fog.
Signals: Causes gray overcast skies with drizzle.
 
Stratus Clouds
Stratus Cloud

Stratocumulus - These clouds appear as low lumpy clouds forming in rows or patches.
Signals: May not bring rain but appear as threatening clouds.
 
Stratocumulus Clouds
Stratocumulus Cloud


Nimbostratus - They block the sunlight, with low, dark clouds. They appear "ragged", composed of water droplets.
Signals: Causes precipitation, depending on the air temperature.

Nimbostratus Clouds
Nimbostratus Cloud

Cumulus - Forms vertically. These big, heaped clouds look like puffs of cotton. Cumulus clouds develop from the process of convection, “rapid local ascent when heated air at the earth’s surface rises in the form of thermal currents” (BBC, 2007).
 
Cumulus Clouds
Cumulus Cloud
 
Cumulonimbus - Meaning heaped rain cloud, the cumulonimbus can develop with a half hour, into towering “cauliflower-like” heap of clouds.
Signals: Develope into thunderstorms
 
Cumulonimbus Clouds
Cumulonimbus Cloud
 
Hopefully, after looking at the pictures and description do help you understand more about the clouds and be amazed by the many forms they can have. There still other special types of clouds, if you are interested, you can further read from the below website, they provide quality information on clouds. Many informations and images are also taken from the below two websites.

Thank you for reading my blog post, please feel free to leave any comments even just for dicussion purpose. :)
 
Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography
 
 
 

 

 


A short recommendation...

  About two months ago, I discovered a very interesting application on my android phone. It is called, "Flipboard". I am not sure whether have you heard about it but I really think it is an awesome application! It broadens my thoughts and views and brings lots of information around the world to me and make many things so much easier to access! Furthermore, the best part is of course it is FREE!!! ^^
  Anyway just a simple introduction, the application allows you to get different types of informations from news (such as New York Times, Economist etc.) to IT to Style to Food and to even photos around the world including disasters around the world too! So now you may ask, how does it relate to geography?
 
  Here it goes, I found this section named, "Amazing Things In The World". And oh my gosh! The photos inside are all so awesome! Its really so amazing and I love them so much! The photos include travel destinations, sceneries, animals and many more! Sometimes the photos are so beautiful to the extent that you will not believe it exist in the world. Below are some pictures that I could find on the website that are featured in the application.
The Gulfoss Waterfall in Iceland
(Image from: http://thesuiteworld.com/iceland-2/waterfall-rainbow-gullfossiceland-golden-fallsthesuiteworld/)

The Apennine Colossus statue by Giambologna in
garden of the Villa Demidoff di Pratolino, Tuscany, Italy
(Image from: http://www.westerncivforum.com/index.php?topic=1848.0)
Monstrous dust storm (Haboob) roared through Phoenix, Arizona.
(Image from: http://www.shaggybevo.com/board/showthread.php/92500-Huge-Duststorm-in-Phoenix-Tuesday-night)
The Baefong Lake in Wulingyuan near Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China
(Image from: http://www.chinahighlights.com/zhangjiajie/weather/july.htm
Electrifying, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France glows blue
(Image from: http://www.facebook.com/UNBfacts)
 
SUOI TIEN CULTURAL AMUSEMENT PARK (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
(It is the first ever buddhist amusement park!!!)
(Image from: http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/china%E2%80%99s-hello-kitty-amusement-park-other-%E2%80%98interesting%E2%80%99-theme-parks/)


  Alright, after viewing the above pictures, hope you feel amazed! In my opinion, they are related to geography because they are all the amazing things that happens in the world from natural formations to man-made sculpture to natural disaster to beautiful scenery to the unpredictable weather and to man-made park. Each and every one of those places have they own beauty and are made from the resources we have from the Earth. It is this wonderful and amazing that we have enjoy so much thanks to our mother Earth but question is, WHAT HAVE WE DONE FOR MOTHER EARTH??? Think Hard!
 
Thank you reading my blogpost! Please feel free to give any comments! Discussions are welcome!   

Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography 


Thursday, September 13, 2012

Discovered By Chance: Italian dioxin crisis

 
  As said, this blog post I will be blogging about the Italian dioxin crisis. This is also another disaster i happen to come across while doing my geography project.
 
 

When it happened?

Date & Time?
Midday of July 10th, 1976
 
How and where it happened?
An explosion occurred in a TCP (2,4,5-trichlorophenol) reactor in the Givaudan-Hoffman-LaRoche-ICMESA (Industrie Chimiche Meda Società Azionaria) chemical company. It is a chemical plant manufacturing herbicides and pesticides in Medina, Italy which is near a village named Seveso.

The chemical plant after explosion
(Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)
 
Consequences?
  • A toxic cloud escaped into the atmosphere containing high concentrations of TCDD (2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), a highly toxic form of dioxin.
  • The dioxin cloud polluted a densely populated area of six kilometres long and one kilometre wide.
  • Immediately killed many animals.
  • Affected a total of 11 communities.
  • Most affected village, Seveso (Hence the disaster was named after this village)
  • Mention as one of the top 10 most catastrophic anthropogenic environmental disasters alongside with the Bhopal union carbide gas leak and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
Hundreds of animals died or were slaughtered

Health Consequences?
  • Humans began to show effects in the following days. Within six days after the accident, 19 children were sent to the hospital for dermal lesions.
  • 34 cases of chloracne, an acne-like lesion caused by over-exposure to chlorinated organic chemicals such as dioxin, were reported of children under 15-years-old over the next five months
A child diagnosed with chloracne, one of the most prominent effects of dioxin contamination

 
  • Within the next four months, 187 cases of chloracne were diagnosed, of which 88% were children.
  • Other effects such as peripheral neurological changes, cytogenetic changes, birth defects, long-term mortality rate and cancer rates are some consequences too. 
  • But these other investigations are more difficult to establish as a consistent effect from the accident due to constraints caused by the post-disaster situation.
How was the pollution handled?
  • Pollution was handled in a much better way than the Bhopal and Chernobyl disaster
  • Polluted areas were researched
  • Most severely polluted soils were excavated and treated elsewhere.
  • Health effects were immediately recognized as a consequence of the disaster and victims were compensated.
  • A long-term plan of health monitoring has been put into operation.
  • Immediate reaction of authorities led to the introduction of European regulation for the prevention and control of heavy accidents involving toxic substancesknown as Seveso Directive.
  • The Seveso Directive obligates appropriate safety measures, and also public information on major industrial hazards, which is now known as the ‘need to know’ principle.


Dioxin waste zone
(Image from: http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/)

Above information from:
http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-disasters.htm#3._Seveso:_Italys_dioxin_crisis 
http://westox.site.wesleyan.edu/the-dioxin-crisis-in-seveso-italy/ 
 
Alright, hope that you have gotten some insights from the above blog post. My view is that, the Italy government has put in effort to help their people overcome the disaster and trying their best to minimize the harm. However, it is still listed as one of the most catastrophic disaster due to the health consequences it can cause.
 
Please feel free to leave any comments! ^^
 
Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography
 

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Discovered by chance: Limnic Eruption!!!


  Today is the end of my geography presentation! And the end of all presentation for the whole semester!!! LIKE FINALLY!
  Anyway, while I was doing my research for my geography project, I happen to come across a natural disaster that I never heard of and I think it is a very interesting yet unusual natural disaster too! (Although sounds weird to say that a disaster is very interesting yet unusual but I cannot find any other words to describe it!!)

  So what is the natural disaster that left an impression on me is  the Limnic Eruption.

 

What is a Limnic eruption?

A limnic eruption occurs when a large bubble of gas is trapped at the bottom of a lake and then get released. It reaches the top, explodes outward, and then travels down the slopes, suffocating everything in it's path. No smoke, no fire, no ash, no lava...no heat! It's just a whole bunch of gas getting released all at once. So how much gas are we talking about? The Lake Nyos eruption released 80 million cubic meters of CO2. (Information from http://mivo-sys.tripod.com/limnic.html )

The following is a presentation slide on the Limnic Eruption that I have gotten from the following website,
http://www.powershow.com/view/12b03d-MTVkY/Limnic_Eruptions_flash_ppt_presentation
 
 
 
After watching reading the presentation slides provided, we know that the Limnic Eruptions is very rare, however, there has been 2 known cases:
 
  1. In Cameroon (A country in west central Africa), at Lake Monoun in 1984, causing the asphyxiation and death of 37 people living nearby. (* Asphyxiation: A condition of severely deficient supply of oxygen to the body that arises from being unable to breathe normally.)

Friday, September 7, 2012

Food Crisis ALERT!!!

  Whew! Its been such a long time since my last post! Recently was rushing my projects but I have been reading news too! I am a person who does not like to read books but I like to read news ^^ I love knowing what is happening around me and sometimes it really amazes me too ^^
 
  Anyway, when as per normal i was surfing the Yahoo! News I happen to came across an article early this week. The article is about FOOD CRISIS!

Why do I choose to do about Food Crisis?

  I am a person who particularly likes to eat, I like to try different sort of food and my family can travel from north to east or even to malaysia just for meals. Hence, food crisis really caught my attention!

Back to the topic...

  The following is the website where I have gotten the article.
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/un-urges-action-stave-off-global-food-crisis-114816140.html

Headline of article:
  UN urges action to avert global food crisis
The concern:
  •   Worry that the 2007-2008 world food crisis which pushed the total number of hungry people to over a billion will repeat itself.
Main issue:
  •   To call for actions to all world leaders to act quickly to prevent a catastrophe which would affect tens of millions of people
Causes:
  1. Sharp increases in maize, wheat and soybean prices
  2. The drought in the United States, which has pushed grain prices to record highs
  3. Global grain production is barely sufficient to meet growing demands for food, feed and fuel. This, in a world where there are 80 million extra mouths to be fed every year
  4. One third of food produced is wasted or lost to spoilage, damage and other causes
Solutions:
  1. Swift, coordinated international action
  2. Tackle both the issue of high food prices as well as the question of how food is produced and consumed
  3. Countries must avoid panic buying and refrain from imposing export restrictions which, while temporarily helping some consumers at home, are generally inefficient and make life difficult for everyone else
  4. Promote sustainable food production in poor, food-importing countries, where there is often huge potential to improve production... especially in rural areas where 70 percent of the world's poor live
  5. Develop resources such as safety nets to safeguard against price shocks which include assistance for smallholder farmers, nutritional support to mothers and children, and school meals, the report said

 My reflection:

  After breaking down the article, I hope that it is easier to understand the article. Anyway, if the food crisis actually happen, it will definitely affect Singapore. Why? This is because Singapore has very limited land and is urbanised, hence we are not able to produce alot of agriculture goods that is enough for the nation, therefore we will have to depend on other countries supply to satisfy our needs.
  Furthermore, Singapore is experiencing rising population hence will demand for more resources but increase in people also means more space is needed for the people to live and possible work on, so the green areas will have to be sacrificed to build housing and industrial to accomodate the people.

Image from: travelerfolio.com
 
  Therefore, because of our land scarcity, Singapore chooses to focus more on the quartenary sector of the Clark-Fisher Sector model whereby services such as research and development and IT are few of the main industries because they do not require as much land as agriculture.
  Now, I have a thought, since Singapore has island such as Pulau Ubin and lesser people are living on it and we have high rainfall rate and good supply of sunlight, will it be feasible if we actually turn Pulau Ubin into a place for agriculture and Singapore shall grow our own food and be less dependable on other countries? Hmm... But anyway that is just a thought...

Image from: alldealsleak.com



Image from: en.wikipedia.org
 
 Alright, hope anyone who is reading this blog post can have some comments on my above thought. Now, I shall sign off and retire to my dreamland! Good night! ^^
 
Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Let's talk about videos!!!

My video review & reflection on: National Geographic: Mega Structure, Singapore's Vegas (Marina Bay Sands or known as MBS)


Awesome nightview of MBS

Background information on MBS:

  • Developed by: Las Vegas Sands led by its founder, Sheldon Adelson
  • Location: Singapore, Marina Bay
  • Cost: S$5.5 billion
  • Designed by: Moshe Safdie & his team of architects
  • Structures: Three 57 storey hotel towers with 2,500+ rooms and suites, an ArtScience Museum, a convention centre capable of accommodating up to 45,000 people and a Shoppe which also includes the crystal pavillion build in water.
  • Attractions: The three hotel towers are connected by a 1 hectare sky terrace on the roof, named Sands SkyPark. SkyPark is home to the world's longest elevated swimming pool made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1424 cubic metres) of water. It has the world's largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines.
  • Opening: The first phase's preview opening was on 27 April 2010, and the official opening was on 23 June 2010. The rest of the complex remained under construction and was opened after a grand opening on 17 February 2011.
  • Aims: To stimulate an addition of $2.7 billion or 0.8% to Singapore's Gross Domestic Product by 2015, employing 10,000 people directly and 20,000 jobs being created in other industries.
  • Some figures: Two months after the initial phased opening, the casino attracts around 25,000 visitors daily, about a third being Singaporeans and permanent residents who pay a $100 daily entry levy or $2,000 for annual unlimited access.Half a million gamblers passed through the casino in June 2010.
(Some information was taken from the video itself and the following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Bay_Sands#Transportation)
A simple map of MBS
(Picture taken from: http://vincentloy.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/marina-bay-sands-render.jpg)

Now let's watch the trailer... (A very short introduction of the video)


  Basically, the whole original video which last for about 50mins was about the building of one of the world's largest casino also a mega structure build by at least 16,500 workers working simultaneously, The Marina Bay Sands otherwise known as MBS in Singapore.

My Reflection:

The main building, The Three Hotel Towers

  In my own opinion, the video is showcasing not only the mega structure but also raising some important issues and problems of the structure of the MBS building. Some issues which I think is important are:
Diaphram walls built during the construction of MBS

The MBS building sits on reclaimed land of Singapore which has lots of marine clay as base, when digged, walls may break and the building may collapse. Solution that engineers employs are building diaphram walls which are pounded 50m into the ground to act as retention systems and permanent foundation walls to prevent sea water from seeping in also to only help to make the building of the structures easier. But question is, sea water are rising meaning more pressure, then can the diaphram wall last for very long and withstand the strong hydraulic pressure from the water?

File:Marina-Bay-Sands.jpg
Sideview of MBS building

Looking at the building, you can see that it is actually build by having one building lying on the other. Refer to the diagram below:


drawings by lim yong
image courtesy of marina bay sands pte ltd. / moshe safdie and associates

image from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/9485/moshe-safdie-marina-bay-sands.html
Things to ponder on:
Even though in the video, it shows that the engineers have carried out extensive wind speed testing for the construction but it was shown that they have only carried out to the speed of 40km/h. Considering the weather has been changing to not any better, very unpredictable and MBS is located so near to the coast:
  • Will the wind speed change to even stronger?
  • Can the building take the string wind?
  • With the plates shifting of up to 20cm per year and the increasing natural disaster rates, is it a safe building?
  • Yes, the building has the retractable small structures within some parts to reassure that when the building is swaying, the building is still flexible enough to withstand but it was only build to accommodate the swaying front back but how about sideways?

Let's see what's the other issue which I think may be a problem...

Art Piece titled "Drift" created by Briton master sculptor, Anthony Gormley
"Drift"

       "Drift" is suspended cloud-like in the air between levels 5 and 12 of the atrium of Hotel Tower 1. The structure weighs 14.8 tons. So now, let's recap abit, if the part of the building is leaning on the other part of the building, it is already quite a great pressure for the building, now with the art piece which weighs tons needing support from the building, the pressure to the building is definitely increased by alot...

 

Alright, the above are just some of my personal views...

        There are still alot of challenging structures within the whole of the Marina Bay Sands buildings that are worth to explore including the crystal pavilion built 6m deep in the water and the lotus like art museum. 



Signing off,
Evee
My World, My Life, My Attitude, My Geography