Up The Yangtze

Up the Yangtze is movie by Chinese/Canadian director Yung Chang. It takes place in China, of course, at different spots of the Yangtze river. The film shows interviews and daily lives of workers at a cruise, peasants who live next to the river and general population that have to be relocated. The relocation is mandatory since the level of the river is constantly rising due to the Three Gorges Dam, which is the biggest hydroelectric project in the world.

The movie shows the effects on the life of around 2 million people, the environmental effect and the economic effect as well. China is undergoing a major development and cleaner energy systems are a must. Nowadays Beijing is presenting a year round smog which is preoccupying the international community.

Rocks

Quartz-is the second most abundant mineral on the earth's crust. The are many varieties of quartz, with some of them considered semi-precious gemstones.

Limestone- is a sedimentary rock composed mainly from calcite and aragonite. Some of the most common uses of limestone is as building material and as aggregate of the base of roads.

MICA-is a group of silicate minerals with hexagonal shaping. They are widely used in construction such as in capacitors and in insulation.

Cruz Plaza

The Cruz Plaza will be the new and rejuvenated heart of the Macon campus of good ole Mercer University. By adding this new landscape to campus, Mercer's reputation of a beautiful campus is exalted. Cruz Plaza is named after the Cruz family of Puerto Rico, which is a big name when talking about medicine in Puerto Rico.

A view of Cruz Plaza

Considerations that the contractor has to take into account:

1. Previous Construction: The workers need to be aware that they are not building on new ground, so they have to work with previous blueprints so they won't break pipelines or sidewalks that are going to be needed.
2. Student Body Safety: There is constant movement on campus so they need to be aware of setting good barriers and avoid any harm. Also contamination (dust, debris) needs to be controlled since it is detrimental to the health of people around it.

My Plant

First Week: My first week with the plant I was really anxious because I was 90% sure it was dead but by day 5 it germinated. It grew up to 1 inch during the first week. I water it once a day with a couple of drops, just to make sure the soil it is on stays moist. Here are some pictures.

Second Week: Plant kept growing steadily, and achieved a big size, contrary to all expectations.

Third Week: The plant keeps growing but its starting to grow laterally instead of keeping getting taller.

Fourth Week: The plant keeps growing but some of the leaves are dead and others started to grow.

Fifth Week: The plant has unprecedentedly started to grow old and died by the end of the week for unknown reasons.

Calculating the Size of the Willet/Stetson Parking Lot

On our first lab we were given the task of calculating the size of the Willet parking lot and writing a report about it. How I proceeded to calculate the size of by counting the number of parking spots and then calculating the size of each parking spots. We also were told to use Google Earth to find the size of the parking lot.

First we find its width.

We then proceed to find the length.

We multiply length by width to find the area.

With this information we can find the volume of rain produced by 1 inch, 2 inches, etc. This is important since it gives us an idea of why sewage systems are important.