Thursday, 16 June 2011

Conclusion/Final Entry

 My Thoughts

1. What is the purpose of your blog? What do you hope to achieve?
Purpose of my blog is to let everyone know that there are disasters happening everywhere.
I hope to achieve that people care for the people that it's happening to and disasters can happen anywhere at anytime.

2. Why do you think people will like your blog?
It's very important topic to know and care about because death is a serious thing and it happens to everyone and mostly caused by the Natural Disasters that happen all the time.

3. What concerns to you have before starting this project? Do you foresee any problems or difficulties?
Will people like what I talk about and comment on what they think about it.
How will I start to talk about it and what all I'll say in the blog.

When we had to do this blog assignment I really didn't know what I was going to do my blog on, I did have ideas but I didn't think they were good enough or enough to talk about in 13 blogs, so I had nothing.
Well at home me and my brothers watch the news more and we see alot of things happening and things that affect the world in a bad way and most of them are from Natural disasters, so I asked the teachers if I could do that and she said yes because there is alot of things to talk about on that and she also said that it was one of the best ideas in the class, so I was happy I had something to talk about for my blog.
I looked up Natural Disasters on the internet and found around 13 or more and I just chose the best ones to talk about, and ones that kinda relate to Canada or things that have happened here.
Well I'm done all my blogs it was fun and I did learn alil more things about Natural Disasters, but I don't think I would want to do blogs all the time because it's hard to write about alot of things everyday.

So last night on the news there was a riot in Vancouver happening about hockey,.......Hockey!! People would actually start a riot, make fires, try to tip a truck over and boss around the police?! For hockey?? Like, I know hockey is Canada's sport but you don't need to go that crazy like that for the Stanley Cup.
Well here's an outside article that was on the news.


Outside Article 
'Hooligans' give Vancouver black eye with post-Cup riots
http://youtu.be/T3n_ifSoCtg

Officers stand guard over two burning police cruisers following the 
Vancouver Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of the Stanley 
Cup hockey final, in Vancouver, Wednesday, June 15, 2011.

Vancouver police will reveal details Thursday about the arrests they made during the ferocious riots that broke out on downtown streets after the final game of the Stanley Cup.
It took hours for police to bring the situation under control, as cars were overturned, store windows were smashed and smoke billowed from overturned vehicles that had been lit ablaze. Looters were seen stealing makeup, clothing and even a mannequin from major retailers that were targeted during the riots.
As the riots raged on Wednesday night, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Roberston put the blame on "hooligans" who were looking for trouble.

MyNews contributor Lukas Peters shared this photo of Vancouver Canuck fans 
watching a car burn during a riot following game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup final in downtown 
Vancouver, Wednesday, June 15, 2011.

A car burns outside The Bay department store during a 
riot in downtown Vancouver, Wednesday, June 15, 2011 following the Vancouver
Canucks 4-0 loss to the Boston Bruins in game 7 of the Stanley Cup hockey final.
Thank You for your comments and reading my blogs :)

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Famines

A famine is a widespread scarcity of food that may apply to any faunal species. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality
Emergency measures in relieving famine primarily include providing deficient micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, through fortified sachet powders or directly through supplements. Aid groups have begun to use a famine relief model based on giving cash or cash vouchers to the hungry to pay local farmers, rather than buying food from donor countries as the latter distorts local food markets.




The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving!

Since you've entered this site at least 200 people have died of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year.
However, the world can produce enough food to feed its expanding population. While some famines are caused by drought or other so-called natural disasters, children are more likely to be starving because of man's inhumanity to man--war, embargoes, government corruption and economic oppression.

 


My Thoughts
It makes me really sad to think that there are people and not to mention young children who are starving and are in deep need of help.
When I'm at home watching TV with my mom and this World Vision commercial comes where they are showing sad pictures of kids so skinny you can see they're bones and playing sad music with videos of kids eating a lil bit of food or crying because of the hunger my mom tells me to change the channel because she doesn't like to watch those lil kids cry and starving. I watch it because my mom doesn't like it and because when i watched one i did one small thing to help change that. I sponsored a child when I DID call that number on the screen. 
His Name is Peter Alfred Makoye. As of January this year he is now 8 years old. I've sponsored him for a year now. Me and my mom send money to him and his family every month for food and medical treatment. I send him gifts for him to play with and keep. I've written letters to him and I've also recieved 2 letters from him, but written by his neighbor and then translated by a World Vision Translator. I get things in the mail that I could send to him also, the last thing I got was a letter from World Vision and a lil necklace that says "Hope" in it. The letter says that the necklace shows him that there's people around the world who care for him and his family and we want to do something to help him out.


A happy child with the World Vision Trademark.
(This is not Peter, my sponser child but he looks almost
exactly like this and just as cute.)
This just shows how big of a smile we can put on a lil child's face
and his family that we care and are doing something about it.

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Meteorites



Meteorites are rocks that have fallen to Earth from space. Some have lain on Earth for many thousands of years; others arrive all the time. Those observed to traverse Earth's atmosphere, and recovered based on those observations, are called meteorite falls. Those with no record of arrival are meteorite finds when recognized. Meteorites are named for where they fall or are found. Over 25,000 meteorites are known worldwide: 18,000 are from Antarctica, and a few thousand from deserts in Africa and Asia. The best general reference on meteorites is Rocks from Space by O. Richard Norton, 2nd Edition, Mountain Press, 1998.

Often there is confusion about when and where meteorites may fall or be preserved, and about what they are and look like. All are significantly different than Earth rocks. Samples sent to experts for identification, even by other scientists, are usually "meteor wrongs" - terrestrial rocks or minerals, man-made slag, metals, alloys or concrete- that rarely resemble meteorites. Less than 60 identified meteorites are known in Canada.



The Willamette Meteorite, officially named Willamette, is an iron-nickel meteorite discovered in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is the largest meteorite found in the United States and the sixth largest in the world. No impact crater was preserved at the discovery site; it is possible that the meteorite landed in what is now Canada and was transported to where it was found by moving ice sheets. It is currently on display at the American Museum of Natural History.

The Willamette Meteorite weighs about 32,000 pounds or 15.5 tons. It is classified as a type III iron meteorite, being composed of over 91% iron and 7.62% nickel, with traces of cobalt and phosphorus. The approximate dimensions of the meteorite are 10 feet (3.05 m) tall by 6.5 feet (1.98 m) wide by 4.25 feet (1.3 m) deep.

Tuscan Ring
It was a blacksmith named Ramon Pacheco, who recovered the slab-like mass on or about 1850, and put it to use as an anvil in Tuscan. In 1856, the other blacksmith anvil, the Ring, was abandoned leaving all the blacksmith's duties to Pacheco and his anvil. In 1862, Colonel James Carleton confiscated the Pacheco anvil and had it shipped to San Fransisco where permission was obtained to saw off a specimen for analysis. The mass remained on display at the Society of California Pioneers until 1939 when it was purchased by the Smithsonian to be displayed alongside the Ring mass.




My Thoughts
I don't think i personally have seen a meteorite fall. I have seen a falling stars. They look like a light shooting through the sky for less than 5 seconds with a certain color. At first when you see one you think it's an alien or something then you realize it's a falling star then you want to tell someone and your all excited that you actually seen a shooting star. I know i was.
I watched a show where they talked about the Tuscan Ring Meteorite and there were these two guys that tried to find the inside piece of the Tuscan Ring, but they didn't have much luck until they were on they're thirtieth day of the hunt and they found two little pieces of rock and they brought it in to be examined to see if it was the missing piece but it wasn't, but they did have a lil bit luck because they did find New Iron. They might be known as the first two people who discovered, New Iron.
I remember on the movie Joe Dirt, he thought he found a meteorite but it was really a big chunk of turd. He didn't know that till someone told him, and i felt bad for him because he was happy he had something somebody didn't, but he was really carrying around a big piece of poo. He even ate food off of it and touched it. Poor Joe Dirt.


Outside Article
Shooting Star's
A shooting star is another name for a meteoroid that burns up as it passes through the Earth’s atmosphere. So, a shooting star isn’t a star at all.
 Most of the shooting stars that we can see are known as meteoroids. These are objects as small as a piece of sand, and as large as a boulder. Smaller than a piece of sand, and astronomers call them interplanetary dust. If they’re larger than a boulder, astronomers call them asteroids.

Monday, 13 June 2011

Limnic Eruptions

A limnic eruption occurs when a gas, usually CO2 suddenly erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife, livestock and humans. Such an eruption may also cause tsunamis in the lake as the rising gas displaces water. Scientists believe landslides, volcanic activity, or explosions can trigger such an eruption. To date, only two limnic eruptions have been observed and recorded:
  • On 15 August 1984, a gas eruption occurred at 11:30 pm local time at Lake Monoun. The event is thought to have been caused by a lakeside landslide that triggered the release of dissolved carbon dioxide and also resulted in a 5 m high wave that damaged vegetation. Carbon dioxide gas travelled downhill at ground level and asphyxiated 37 people. The majority of the causalities were found along a low-lying part of a road that passes the lake. A number of dead animals were also found within the immediate area.
  • At nearby Lake Nyos in 1986 a much larger eruption killed between 1,700 and 1,800 people by asphyxiation.


    My Thoughts
    When something like this happened, not many people knew about it and the people that were affected died from it because they didn't know it was happening. I don't think there's many things we can do to stop something like this, but we just have to get through it and monitor the next one to be ready for it.

Friday, 10 June 2011

Cyclones

What is a cyclone?

Cyclones are huge revolving storms caused by winds blowing around a central area of low atmospheric pressure. In the northern hemisphere, cyclones are called hurricanes or typhoons and their winds blow in an anti-clockwise circle. In the southern hemisphere, these tropical storms are known as cyclones, whose winds blow in a clockwise circle.


The 1970 Bhola cyclone was a devastating tropical cyclone that struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and India's West Bengal on November 12, 1970. It was the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times. Up to 500,000 people lost their lives in the storm, primarily as a result of the storm surge that flooded much of the low-lying islands of the Ganges Delta. This cyclone was the sixth cyclonic storm of the 1970 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, and also the season's strongest, reaching a strength equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.


The cyclone formed over the central Bay of Bengal on November 8 and traveled north, intensifying as it did so. It reached its peak with winds of 185 km/h (115 mph) on November 12, and made landfall on the coast of East Pakistan that night. The storm surge devastated many of the offshore islands, wiping out villages and destroying crops throughout the region. In the most severely affected upazila, Tazumuddin, over 45% of the population of 167,000 was killed by the storm.

                                                           Cyclone Storm Path

The 1970 cyclone is nonetheless the deadliest tropical cyclone on record and is one of the deadliest natural disasters in recent history. The exact death toll will never be known, but it is estimated that between 300,000 and 500,000 people lost their lives.

 My Thoughts
This disaster must have been the worst thing to happen in a long time. Lots of people must have been terrified and very devastated. If something like this happened now, it would be the biggest thing in the world for week or even months and every celebrity would want to donated lots of money from they're charities to help out and people everywhere around the world would try and donate as much money as they can to help every person affected, through it.
I personally hope nothing will ever happen like this again.

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Heat Waves

 

A heat waves is an extended interval of abnormally hot and usually humid weather, usually lasting from a few days to over a week.
Heat waves form when an air mass becomes stationary over a region. Hot humid air masses form over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea while hot dry air masses form over the desert Southwest and northern Mexico. In the Eastern United States a heat wave occurs when a high pressure system originating in the Gulf of Mexico becomes stationary just off the Atlantic Seaboard (typically known as a Bermuda High.) The SW winds on the back side of the High continue to pump hot, humid Gulf air North-eastward resulting in a spell of hot and humid weather for much of the Eastern States.


Heat Waves are dangerous because heat kills by taxing the human body beyond its abilities. In a normal year, about 175 Americans succumb to the demands of summer heat. Among the large continental family of natural hazards, only the cold of winter - not lightning, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, or earthquakes - takes a greater toll. In the 40-year period from 1936 through 1975, nearly 20,000 people were killed in the United States by the effects of heat and solar radiation. In the disastrous heat wave of 1980, more than 1,250 people died. The July 1995 heat wave caused more than 1,000 heat-related deaths across the Midwest and East Coast. And these are the direct casualties. No one can know how many more deaths are advanced by heat wave weather - how many diseased or aging hearts surrender that under better conditions would have continued functioning.

A heat advisory is issued when the heat, or combination of heat and humidity, is expected to become an inconvenience for much of the population, and a problem for some.


An excessive heat warning is issued when the heat, or combination of heat and humidity, is expected to be dangerous for a large portion of the population.

The heat index is the number in degrees Fahrenheit that tells how hot it really feels when relative humidity is added to the actual air temperature. Exposure to full sunshine can increase the heat index by 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

130 degrees or higher: heatstroke/sunstroke highly likely with continued
105 - 130 degrees:sunstroke, heat cramps or heat exhaustion likely with prolonged exposure.
90 - 105 degrees: sunstroke, heat cramps and heat exhaustion possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity.
80 - 90 degrees:fatigue possible with prolonged exposure and/or physical activity. 


My Thoughts
Heat waves are scary because to me they seem kinda like global warming. Heat waves can kill people and so will global warming. My sister tells me that she kinda hates the summer because of how hot it can get sometimes and she thinks it's global warming and it would be a bad way to die.
Winter kinds sucks cause it's too cold but it's also not fun when it's too hot during the summer that you can't do anything because you feel to lazy or the sun is to hot and makes you tired.
I'd rather be hot then cold because there's actually no snow around and we can do things even if it's to hot. There's things to protect us from the sun like shade, sunscreen, cold water (swimming) and there's no snow and there's no school. Snow sometimes just isn't fun unless the sun's shining and it's nice out or when they snow is melting and spring is almost near.

Epidemic

An epidemic is an outbreak of a contractible disease that spreads at a rapid rate through a human population. A pandemic is an epidemic whose spread is global. There have been many epidemics throughout history, such as Black Death. In the last hundred years, significant pandemics include: 
The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, killing an estimated 50 million people worldwide The 1957-58 Asian flu pandemic, which killed an estimated 1 million people The 1968-69 Hong Kong flu pandemic.
The 2002-3 SARS pandemic The AIDS epidemic, beginning in 1959 Other diseases that spread more slowly, but are still considered to be global health emergencies by the WHO include:
XDR TB, a strain of tuberculosis that is extensively resistant to drug treatments Malaria, which kills an estimated 1.5 million people each year Ebola hemorrhagic fever, which has claimed hundreds of victims in Africa in several outbreaks.
Rank Death toll (estimate) Event Location Date
1. &0000000100000000000000100,000,000 approx. Black Death Asia, Europe, Africa 01300 1300s–1720s
2. &000000005000000000000050,000,000–100,000,000 Spanish Flu Worldwide 01918 1918–1920
3. &000000004000000000000040,000,000–100,000,000 Plague of Justinian Asia, Europe, Africa 00540 540–590
4. &000000001200000000000012,000,000 ? Third Pandemic of Bubonic Plague Worldwide 01850 1850s–1950s
5. &00000000050000000000005,000,000 Antonine Plague Roman Empire 00165 165–180
6. &00000000040000000000004,000,000 Asian Flu Worldwide 01956 1956–1958

My Thoughts
When this like this happen it's hard to stop it or find an cure. Already hundreds of lives have been lost and there is till the people who have it and people are going to get it. It's hard to avoid something that can be spread easily, and alot of people already have it.