Mar
6
2010
Hey, so awhile back we had some posts about the Pacific Garbage Gyre, and well now they have discovered one in the Atlantic Ocean. We got this story from greenopolis.com
A newly discovered ocean gyre exists in the Atlantic, according to a National Geographic report.
The Atlantic Garbage Patch sits several hundred miles off North America and covers a patch roughly equivalent to the distance between Cuba and Virginia. That’s more than 1000 miles.
Much of the debris floating within the garbage patch consists of tiny bits of post-consumer plastic and trash, most of it weighting less than a paper clip. Much of this waste could have been recycled instead of ending up in the ocean.
Just as with the Pacific gyre, a Texas-sized floating garbage patch, plastic has circulated in the Atlantic Ocean for decades. The floating garbage pile poses serious health risks to fish, seabirds, and marine mammals that accidentally stray into the bog.
“Many people have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Kara Lavender Law, an oceanographer at the Sea Education Association (SEA) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. ” But this issue has essentially been ignored in the Atlantic.”
Research conducted using floating satellite tags, called drifters, help track currents that carry the trash to the Atlantic and Pacific garbage patches. Important information considering that deep waves often carry the battered plastic as far as 65 feet below the surface – and out as far as the Hawaiian Islands – before eventually returning to the gyre.
The Atlantic gyre is currently made up of about 500,000 plastic and trash bits per square mile, but is expected to continue growing. A disturbing fact, considering the 1.9 million bits per square mile contained within the Pacific gyre.
The best way to help prevent these gyres from growing is to faithfully recycle plastics. But first our attitude toward plastic must change. If we understand that plastic is a reusable resource, rather than garbage, we can begin to lessen our impact on the oceans and the planet as a whole.
Mar
5
2010
So, Deetfin’s old/present high school was locked down today. Here’s the article from the OC Register:
LAKE FOREST – Two schools were placed on lockdown Friday morning after several homemade “acid bombs” were found to have been detonated inside one of the campuses the previous night, authorities said.
The improvised devices, which set off a chemical reaction inside a container, were detonated at La Madera Elementary School sometime Thursday night, and school officials found the remnants of the explosions the following morning, said Lt. Jim England of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.
Bomb squad officials were called to La Madera Elementary, at 25350 Serrano Road, as a precaution at 8:16 a.m., after the explosive devices were found, England said.
No significant damage was found and no one was injured in the incident, he said. Bomb squad officials searched the campus and found no additional devices.
Deputies with the sheriff’s department also locked down El Toro High School, which is just a short distance from the elementary school, England said. Officials searched the high school campus as well, but found no devices.
The lockdown on both campuses was lifted by 10:20 a.m., England said.
Officials are investigating who detonated the devices Thursday night.
The homemade devices, which can be unstable, are considered dangerous, England said.
“They do explode, so they are dangerous,” he said.
Here’s the e-mail that the principal sent out to parents:
On Friday, March 5th, at approximately 9:00 am, I was informed that there was police activity in the neighborhood as the result of water bottles filled with an acid mixture being found at our neighboring school in close proximity to us. As a precautionary measure, I decided to lock down the school until we could confirm that we were not in danger. We worked with the police department to sweep our campus under the supervision of the department’s bomb squad leader. We unlocked the school at 10:10 am.
Mar
4
2010
A time lapse of about 3 hours of Hong Kong Harbor at night.
Some of the first recreational activities to take place in the harbour were water competitions such as swimming and water polo in 1850s within the members of Hong Kong’s first sports club, the Victoria Recreation Club.
During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong. On December 21, 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On January 23, 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a naval battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities. These incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbour was originally called “Hong Kong Harbour,” but was later renamed as “Victoria Harbour,” to assure shelter for the British fleet under Queen Victoria.
The subject of pollution arrived in the 1970s with rapid growth in the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, a year after the RMS Queen Elizabeth burned and capsized there . Other studies were done to show excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades.
After completion of the Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Feasibility Study in 1989, the Land Development Policy Committee endorsed a concept for gradual implementation of the reclamation. The reclamation consists of three district development cells separated by parks, namely, Central, Tamar and Exhibition.
The latest proposed reclamation extends along the waterfront from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay faced public opposition, as the harbour has become a pivotal location to Hongkongers in general. Activists have denounced the government’s actions as destructive not only to the natural environment, but also to what is widely considered as one of the most prized natural assets of the territory. NGOs, including the Society for Protection of the Harbour, were formed to resist further attempts to reduce the size of the waterbody, with its chairman, Christine Loh, quoted as saying that the harbour “…is a precious national asset and we must preserve it for future generations. I believe an insightful and visionary Chief Executive would support our stance and work with us to protect the harbour”.
Mar
2
2010
A time lapse to the top of the Big Buddha
The statue is named Tian Tan Buddha because its base is a model of the Altar of Heaven or Earthly Mount of Tian Tan, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. It is one of the five large Buddha statues in China. The Buddha statue sits on a lotus throne on top of a three-platform altar. It is surrounded by six smaller bronze statues known as “The Offering of the Six Devas” and are posed offering flowers, incense, lamp, ointment, fruit, and music to the Buddha. These offerings symbolize charity, morality, patience, zeal, meditation, and wisdom, all of which are necessary to enter into nirvana.
The Buddha is 34 metres (110 ft) tall, weighs 250 metric tons (280 short tons), and was the world’s tallest outdoor bronze seated Buddha prior to 2007. It reputedly can even be seen from as far away as Macau on a clear day. Visitors have to climb 268 steps in order to reach the Buddha, though the site also features a small winding road to the Buddha for vehicles to accommodate the handicapped.
The Tian Tan Buddha appears serene and dignified. His right hand is raised, representing the removal of affliction. His left hand rests on his lap in a gesture of giving dhana. The Buddha faces north, which is unique among the great Buddha statues, as all others face south.
In addition, there are 3 floors beneath the Buddha statue: The Hall of Universe, The Hall of Benevolent Merit, and The Hall of Remembrance. One of the most renowned features inside is a relic of Gautama Buddha, consisting of some of his alleged cremated remains. Only those visitors who purchase an offering at the Buddah are allowed to see the relic, in order to leave the offering there. There is a huge carved bell inscribed with images of Buddhas in the show room. It was designed to ring every seven minutes, 108 times a day, symbolising the release of 108 kinds of human vexations.
