Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Veteran's Week
I found this interesting because I got a first hand look at the experiences of these men and woman. I found that I have more respect for soldiers now because I saw a small glimpse of what they went through. Personally I don’t agree with Oliver Stone’s depiction of a soldier’s life in Vietnam because I am sure that not every soldier was a pot head or a stone cold killer.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Performing Arts Library
I went to the library on Friday along with Dino, Hema, George, Helen and Noel. We picked a bad day to go because it was raining and cold. We decided to go that day because we also had to go to BMCC with professor Reuben for film class. The New York public library for the performing arts has some of the worlds most extensive combination of circulating and non-circulating reference and research materials on music, dance, theater and recorded sounds. It is located in Lincoln Center Plaza and it is between the Metropolitan Opera house and the Vivian Beaumont Theater. I was interested in the library's drama collection which is located on the first and second floor along with dance and music collections. The drama collection contained materials on theater, film, television, vaudeville etc. What I found interesting is that there was a collection of accent tapes which actors used to help them change their accent for the role that they are playing. I think that the library would be a good place to help anyone who is looking for a start in the performing arts.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
My Spring Break
I found some interesting facts on how most of the American government is fifty five percent catholic. I also celebrated Easter on Sunday with my family. To me Easter is one of the most important holidays of the year because it is a time were the whole family comes together and celebrates the resurrection of Christ. Painting red eggs and roasting lamb is a Greek tradition. I worked on the paper for almost the whole week and I finished on Sunday morning, just in time to enjoy Easter with my family. I really enjoyed having the week off after studying for the past two months.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
How to go green
According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the two largest offenders in the global warming problem are power plants and cars. Coal-burning power plants in the U.S produce 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide pollution every year. This is the largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the U.S. Cars are the second largest source, producing 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year.
The first thing that you can do is change the light bulbs in your house with more energy efficient light bulbs. This will save you about 700 pounds of carbon dioxide a year and 90 dollars a year in energy costs. You can also replace old household appliances with energy-efficient models. By buying a high-efficiency refrigerator will save you 100 dollars per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 500 pounds a year. Another thing that you can do if you drive is leave your car home at least twice a week and either walk, use public transportation or bike. This can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds per year.
I have already started changing the light bulbs in my house with energy-efficient ones. By doing that I am already saving energy money. I am also looking to buy a car but it is taking longer than I expected because I am looking to by a hybrid car which saves energy and money.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
New york public library
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Global Warming
Global warming is becoming a big problem and people just don't seem to get it. They think by just recycling they are doing something but it is not enough. Every year new facts on how global warming effects our planet are coming out but it does not seem to phase people. Since 1979 the polar ice cap has shrunk 20 percent which is causing floods that will continue to get worse if people don't get the message. Average temperatures in the Arctic region are rising twice as fast as they are elsewhere in the world. Arctic ice is getting thinner, melting and rupturing. The largest single block of ice in the Arctic which is called the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, has been around for 3,000 years. It started cracking in 2000 and Within two years it had split all the way through and is now breaking into pieces. Some scientists predict that by the end of this century summers in the Arctic could become ice-free.
When we burn fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas to generate power that produces the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming. The most important thing that we can do is save energy and there are many steps that we can take to do so. One way to save energy and get more for your dollar is to buy fluorescent light bulbs instead of incandescent light bulbs because fluorescent light bulbs last ten times longer while also saving you fifteen dollars on your electric bill every year. Buying energy efficient appliances such as refrigerates will cost more but it will also save you money on your electric bill and consume less than one fourth of the energy that previous refrigerator models did so you are also. Another way to help out would be to inflate your tires for fuel efficiency. If all Americans kept proper maintenance of there tires the nationwide gasoline consumption would go down two percent each year. Car pooling is also a good way to save gasoline consumption. If your like me and your the type of person who would rather drive instead of using public transportation than purchasing a hybrid car is a good idea. I recently entered a contest with the radio station 102.7 to win the 2008 Lexus Rx hybrid but I didn't win.
I hope that the steps that I suggested are helpful. You do not have to try and accomplish all of them but doing at least what you can, would be helping to slow down and hopefully one day stop global warming.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Museum of natural history
What a I found really interesting was a tree core from the Tarvagatay montain of Mongolia which served as a climate record. The way this works is that tree rings are sensitive indicators of annual climate. Thick rings indicate rapid growth during warmwet years. Thin rings indicate slow growth which means that the tree was growing during cold dry years. by matching overlapping sequences from progressively older trees a complete tree ring chronology can be extended back thousands ofyears. A single tree, however records only climate. To establish the regional climate many trees fro various localities must be examined.
There are also many ice records that show buried and recrystallized layers of ice that occur every year. Some of the air between the snow flakes is trapped as bubbles in the ice. The sample that I saw was the middle core sample. It was 1,689 meters deep and it was 10,078 bc years old. This sample was foind in the mis 1800's and it showed that since it was found Co2 levels have risen.
There was a video in that I saw at the museum that I found very interesting which stated that by removing all human population growth and fuel use the earth would be able to fix itself and in 75 years the Co2 levels would return to industrial times. Visitng the museum was very interesting and I learned a lot of information on the cause and effect of global warming. I visited the museum many times before but I never stoped to pay any attention to the global warming section that was there but because of this assignment I spent more time there than I would usually which is good because it was helpful.