Reflection blog post

OH YEAH! Last day of winter term 2012, time flies. I cannot believe four month has pasted, and summer is coming. HAHA~

I have to admit, I thought ALES204 is kind of useless at first, because I just about internet, blogging and tweet. No big deal, boring and easy. Later, I get the funny and knowledge behind that. I do not post personal feeling online, I believe what I think should think inside my heart, instead of telling people I know or I don’t. That was why I am not active online, even my best friend asked me to.

Now, I have Facebook, tweeter, audioboo, linkedin account and etc. Most of the accounts are used only in ALES204 class, but I keep using Facebook in my only free time. I find out information flow very fast on Facebook, text, video and pictures could be shared by other people, every friend can see what whatever I am doing. Like the page I created in Facebook, WOW, the most serious thing I have even done online. But, I like it, I never thought of Facebook can be professional. That is something new,.

Then, I did a wiki stub entry. In high school, my ENGL teacher told us we can never use Wikipedia as academic source, I never get that. I always thought back in high school, why not? Wikipedia always pump up at first choose, and all the information are there, one website included everything. Now, finally I know why. Anybody can edit Wikipedia as long as you have an account which can be created freely. I never know edit Wikipedia is that easy. Well, Wikipedia is a good tool to get a general idea, but never a good academic source.

                                                           

 Crystal. (Oct 2011). Better of the way. Retrevied April 13, 2012 from http://isys100groupblog.blogspot.ca /2011/10/better-of-way.html.

The most useful lecture I think is the resume and cover letter one. I never done that before, it is very nice to learn the skill before I needed a job. I have learned great skill from this course, thanks to my dear professor and TAs.

http://ales204-2012.blogspot.ca/2012/02/lecture-15-cv-writing.html

http://lutonghuang.blogspot.ca/ 

Five blog links: 
http://ales204humanecologystudent.blogspot.com/2012/01/introductory-post.html#comment-form
http://adelle918.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2012-01-27T16:12:00-07:00&max-results=7
http://feiyanales204.blogspot.ca/2012/01/my-new-facebook-page.html
http://lmcsporran.blogspot.ca/2012/04/toning-it-up-via-twitter.html#comment-form
http://clien-ales.blogspot.ca/2012/04/second-passion-look-at-animal-assisted.html#comment-form
  
      

Free post -- The sciences in Titanic

            I watched Titanic yesterday with my boyfriend, and we talked a lot about scientific-related life and dead in the movie, we even discussed what we would do in the same situation, the best way to stay alive when no boats are available.

            It was back in 1912, 100 years ago, the largest ship Titanic also named unsinkable sank in Atlantic Ocean in less than 3 hours. When the captain ordered the distress call, he was told only one ship response and it would take 4 hours to get there. According to a British historian – Tim Maltin, an unusual optical phenomenon explains why the Titanic received no assistance from a nearby ship. Also, atmospheric conditions in Atlantic Ocean at that night were ripe for super refraction that explains why the lookouts in Titanic could not see the iceberg.

Floyd, C. (2012). Did the Titanic Sink Because of an Optical Illusion?[Image], Retrieved,

April 10, 2012, from URL http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Did-

the-Titanic-Sink-Because-of-an-OpticalIllusion.html?c=y&page=1&navigation=p

revious#IMAGES.

            The Titanic was sailing from Gulf Stream, where the temperature is warmer. The air column was cooling from the bottom up on the way to New York; it created a thermal inversion, layers of cold air below layers of warmer air. Because of thermal inversion refracts light abnormally, it creates superior mirage. It makes objects appear higher than they actually are. It could confuse the vision. It happened in the Titanic, the lookouts were confused by superior mirage, they saw the sea surface higher than it actually is, and the superior mirage camouflaged the iceberg. It was too late when the Titanic lookout reported it in. When the Titanic signaled for help, but the abnormally stratified air was disrupting the signals. Also the distress rockets fired by the Titanic were too lower to see.

            Under the circumstance of no help from other ships, no enough boats for over 2100 people, and the Titanic was sinking, many people were dropped into the water, because of the crowded Titanic. Most of them were wearing life jackets, it prevented them from drowning, but it did not save them from hypothermia. The water was freezing; the people in the water would die because their bodies did not make enough of heat. According to Coco Ballantyne, a person can survive no longer than 20 minutes in 5^oC (or 41-degree F). In the movie Titanic, it was in the Atlantic Ocean, people’s hair started to freeze when they were in water. The water temperature was much lower than 5^oC, which means they have less than 20 minutes until the boats came back for them. Rose was the lucky one, she was flowing on the top of the water instead of into the water.

Reference

Ballantyne, C. (January 16, 2009). Hypothermia: how long can someone survive in frigid

water? Retrieved, April 10, 2012 from URL http://www.scientificamerican.com /article.cfm?id=airplane-1549-hudson-hypothermia&page=2.

Maltin, T. (March, 2012). Did the Titanic Sink Because of an Optical Illusion? Retrieved,

April 10, 2012 from: URL http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Did-

the-Titanic-Sink-Because-of-an-Optical-Illusion.html?c=y&page=1&navigation=

previous#IMAGES. 

http://lutonghuang.blogspot.ca/2012/04/science-of-chinese-food-free-blog-post.html   

Wiki Assignment

             
                     By Clark, J. The Blackwater River
            From (http://fiddlefreak.com/2009/12/08/coal-country-mp3/)

The following paragraphs are for update the scientific stub in Wikipedia – Blackwater (coal).

During coal preparation, certain wastes like blackwater are produced.  The untreated blackwater can damage the ecosystems and people themselves. Blackwater contains numerous amounts of hazardous substances, including carcinogenic compounds and heavy metals, which make it extremely dangerous; the blackwater damages everything it touches. 

According to 2005’s coal production country list, China (2,204,729,000 ton) produces the most coal in the world, followed by United State (531,822,000 ton) and India (407,013,000 ton).

China, as the largest coal produced country, but failed to hander the coal waste. Certain companies give up the advanced blackwater treatment, because those technologies are too expensive for them. Eventually they dig a huge hole in the ground to dispose the blackwater. Every year, 2.5 million ton of untreated blackwater are discharged into the hole. Regardless it would seep into the aquifer below.

A blackwater recycling system can reduce the damage of blackwater. There are several types of recycling system, for plant use, garden use, even for drinking water. The following system is for plant use only. First of all, let the blackwater settle and added primary colony of bacteria to work for 24 hours. Then let the backwater goes into three separate rooms, which are Aeration, Sludge settling and Irrigation.

Aeration step

Once the blackwater is injected into this room, bacterial settle and multiply on the sludge particles, digesting a variety of nutrients and oxygen from the sludge.

Sludge settling

After the aeration step, the blackwater goes into a sludge settling chamber. Sludge sinks to the bottom, and partially treated water is forced upwards through a mechanism that has another bacteria biomass covering it. This colony of bacteria then consumes most of the oxygen in the mix and breaks down any remaining solid particles.

Irrigation

The remaining blackwater passes into the irrigation chamber where it is clarified and chlorinated. This process required by the local health authorities.

After the last step, the machine would pump the recycled blackwater out automatically. The treated blackwater is no longer harmful to the environment or people.

I have to say, Wikipedia is not reliable because everybody can create an account to edit the information online. Beside no one would correct the mistake. Like our TA – Erin Dul said, on average there are three or more mistakes in Wikipedia. Well, we should never ever use Wikipedia as our academic research.

I don’t understand why, when I Google something, the Wikipedia site always pop up in the first place. So when you have no idea what the topic is, Wikipedia might be a good tool to get an idea what is that. 

External Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackwater_(coal)

We both have the same idea of Wikipedia, unreliable but still useful.
Internal Link: http://www.ales204n-briggs.blogspot.ca/2012/03/wonderful-world-of-wikipedia-wiki-sites.html

mY Facebook Page

We are asked to create a new Facebook page as a business card. Actually, Facebook page is useful. Facebook page also can be very professional; this page just likes a copy of my resume. Once I created the new page, everyone can see what is on there. The Facebook page is a free way to advertising me.

Picture from http://www.facebook.com/pages/LoVE_SpongeBOB/280911508635303?sk=info

This is my page, so I can write anything I want. The purpose of the page is for my potential employers. So in my page info, I added my academic history, work experience, skills, volunteers and personal information. Through the information provided, people can know me more, the professional side of me.

Facebook page is very important for communication. When we created the page, the page is there forever, unless you delete it. Also, everyone can find you on Facebook. Honestly, before this course, I did not know the social media tools like Facebook can be used professional, which means the professional people can communicate globally. The people in all over the world can see my resume.

Social media such an interesting tool, we can share the latest news, articles and events.

Internal link: http://www.facebook.com/messages/?setup#!/pages/Crystal-Hs-Page/305626309490070?sk=info

External link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/04/facebook_starts_counting_conversations/

Introductory post

That is a picture of my parent, my younger brother and me, took by my uncle. We were in Expo Shanghai 2010, before my flight to Canada.

 My name is Qiyun Liang, but I prefer my English name Yvonne, then you guys can remember my name. I am from a city near Hong Kong, small but very pretty. Now is the first term of my second year in the University of Alberta, I am major in Nutrition and food. I hope I can transfer to Nutrition Major next semester.

I really miss the summer in my hometown. Study abroad is not easy, away from family and friends; study a new language and an entirely new culture in a new country. Communication is very important between me and my family, friends due to the distance. Because my parent does not know how to call me, so I have to call them regularly, like once a week. Sometime I am very busy with assignment or exam, I forgot to call them, they would leave me bundle of message on QQ, something like MSN. Once my father told me, because I forgot to call them, my mother just couldn’t sleep all night. She was wondering whether something bad happened to me. Since that time, I call my mother every week, no matter how busy I am.

Professionally, as an international student, I have a hard time to understand the information are available to me, also, I don’t know what other information are available. Until this term, I went to meet my faculty‘s international advisor, Pamela Minty, she totally understands my situation. According to her advices, I apply to become a Campus Sustainability volunteer, and join Nutrition and Food Sciences Students Association (NuFSSA). This is my second year in Canada, my life finally moving to the right track. 

Internal LINK: lutonghuang.blogspot.com

External link: http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/uai/index.cfm