Contagion Review

I watched the film “Contagion” around two months ago. Contagion is a 2011 medical thriller disaster film. Contagion's plot documents the spread of a virus transmitted by fomites, attempts by medical researchers and public health officials to identify and contain the disease, the loss of social order in a pandemic, and finally the introduction of a vaccine to halt its spread. This movie was inspired by various pandemics such as the 2003 SARS epidemic and the 2009 flu pandemic.

In the film's final moments, an extended flashback explains the virus' outbreak.

A man driving a bulldozer that works for Beth's company knocks down a palm tree where bats are nesting. The bats become disturbed and fly away. One of the bats is carrying a virus; it flies onto a banana plant and eats a chunk of the banana. The bat then roosts on a water supply pipe, over a pig pen.

The bat drops a chunk of the banana out of its mouth and into the pig pen, where a pig eats the banana, and demonstrates the chain of contagion with the bat's disease, creating a Bat-Pig hybrid.

The next day, a group of Chinese chefs collect piglets from the same pen and take them to a casino. One of the chefs butchers the diseased piglet and is shown preparing it for roasting. The chef is approached and called away from his preparations. He casually wipes his hands on his apron. It is revealed that he is called away to greet and shake hands with Beth Emhoff, creating the Bat-Pig-Human hybrid that makes her patient zero as the origin of the MEV-1 Virus.

The director chooses some place such as Hong Kong and Japan. These places are the high population density places. So the transmission of virus is very fast.

I think the high population is not the terrible thing. A city with high population density is the dangerous thing when there is a virus needs to multiplication.

References:
Contagion (film). (2012, December 23). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 23, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(film)

2012 Beijing Flooding Additional

For our presentation we talk about the 2012 Beijing flooding, and a lot of people were angry with the things that the government did for the victims.

During my search time, I found a case to prove why the Chinese are so angry.

Near the Guangqumen overpass in downtown Beijing, where the water rose as high as 13 feet, a driver was stranded in his SUV and drowned. The next day, “Ways to Escape from Submerged Cars” became the No.1 daily search item on Baidu after it was reported that the driver had a fractured skull from trying to break the car window with his head, though the driver’s wife later claimed that the injury was incurred when the rescue team broke the car window and accidentally hit the driver’s head.

With more rain expected to fall on Beijing, “life-saving hammers” for in-car use and gigantic, plastic storage bags that can wrap around an entire car have also become hot commodities. Ironically, the 600-year-old Forbidden City was perfectly safe from the flood—zero accumulation of water proved that the ancient Chinese sewer system beats the modern one based on a design by the Soviets.

As more details emerge about survivors’ and victims’ experience in the rain, the focus of attention is now shifting to the city’s emergency response mechanism. Caixin News reported Wednesday that in the SUV-driver case, the driver’s wife repeatedly pleaded for help from the rescue team parked nearby, but it took action only after it heard that “the official had arrived,” according to the wife. Drivers have reported the lack of surveillance near flooded roads, such as the Beijing to Hong Kong/Macau Highway, where a busload of people was stranded before being rescued by local workers. The story of a man desperately searching for his wife while seeing police from both Fangshan and Fengtai Districts shirking their responsibilities, casts further doubt on the government’s reliability in disaster relief.

This is also the reason why people suspect the government response.

References:
"Donate Your Sister": Upset Citizens Tell Beijing Government After Flood Fiasco. (2012, September 7). Douban. Retrieved December 21, 2012, from http://www.douban.com/note/235486468/

Wind Power

Wind power is an energy source from wind which is harnessed using a system to transform the moving energy of the wind into: mechanical energy, electrical energy.


The wind blows on the blades and makes them turn. Then the blades turn the shaft, which is inside the nacelle (The nacelle is a box covering the gears and the generator at the top of the turbine.) The gears connected to the shaft are rotated and generate rotational energy. The generator uses magnetic fields to convert the rotational energy into electrical energy. The power output goes to a transformer, which converts the electricity coming out of the generator to the right voltage for distribution system. Finally, the national grid transmits the power around the country.

There are some disadvantages of wind power. All the people know the advantages of wind power; they are not sure about the disadvantage of it.

 

First, wind power is a variable resource, produce electricity only when the wind blows. Secondly, and it can direct fatalities from collisions or electrocutions and loss of wildlife habitat and natural vegetation. Then wind turbines have the potential of becoming interference to radio-transmitted wave signals and communication.

 

These are the disadvantage of wind power. All the things in the world have two sides, we should compare the advantage and disadvantage, then make a decision.

References:
Properties, P. (2010, August 27). We Run On Wind Power - Preservation Properties Real Estate. Newton and Surrounding Areas Massachusetts Real Estate - Preservation Properties Real Estate. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from http://www.preservationproperties.com/Blog/We-Run-On-Wind-Power

Stone Forest

     Talking about geography, I think about “Stone Forest” in my hometown immediately. You can call the “Stone Forest” as “Shilin” as well. I’ve been there for once, it’s really beautiful. These formations, caused by the dissolution of limestone, are believed to be over 270 million years old.

     The Stone Forest or Shilin is a notable set of limestone formations located in Shilin Yi Autonomous County, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China, near Shilin approximately 120 kilometres from the provincial capital Kunming.

     The tall rocks seem to emanate from the ground in the manner of stalagmites, with many looking like petrified trees thereby creating the illusion of a forest made of stone. Since 2007, two parts of the site, the Naigu Stone Forest and Suogeyi Village，have been UNESCO World Heritage Sites as part of the South China Karst.

 

     I prefer the one undeveloped “Stone Forest”. Now this place is excessive commercialization. I always remember when I visited the place, the place is so quiet, and I can look these stones one by one, use my own way to  visit. 

     Sometimes you can meet with some local ethnic minority; they will tell you the legend story about Ashima.

     For now, a lot of people only visit the famous place. You can’t feel exciting when you found a strange stone. Most of time there is crowded. A lot of group tours are there. I like the original one.

     Can I go back that wonderful time in Shilin? I missed that time... ...

References:
Stone Forest. (2012, December 15). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 18, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Forest

Mirage

     When I was 6 years old, I heard “Mirage” this word for the first time. I think this is amazing. Unfortunately, I do not have chance to see mirage.

     A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky.

 

     In contrast to a hallucination, a mirage is a real optical phenomenon which can be captured on camera, since light rays actually are refracted to form the false image at the observer's location.

     The cause of mirage is the image seen is under the real object. The real object is the blue sky or any distant object in that direction, meaning we see a bright bluish patch on the ground in the distance. For exhausted travelers in the desert it appears as a lake of water. On tarmac roads it may seem that water or even oil has been spilled. This is called a "desert mirage" or "highway mirage". Note that both sand and tarmac can become very hot when exposed to the sun, easily being more than 10°C hotter than the air one meter above, enough to cause the mirage.

 

     In China, there are many cases about mirage.

     This mirage can saw in the Haikou City, Hainan Province, China. This one was happened on Monday, 9 May 2011.

     Around 16:00 over the bay near Haikou City has arisen unique natural phenomenon- a mirage. Almost an hour, people could watch a ghost town, that hangs over the sea, many people gathered on the beach to witness the
phenomenon.

     As reported, the mirage has arisen because of an abnormally high temperature, which is established in the last few days on Hainan Island, usually unusual for this time year. Previously, they reported about a similar case in the summer of 2010 in the city of Sanya, with regard to the high temperature 35-38 degrees Celsius in the coming days is likely to repeat mirages and everyone can see them.

     This is really amazing. Write this blog I know what mirage is and the cause of mirage. I got a lot of information. If I have the opportunity, I definitely would not miss this kind of beautiful scene.

Reference:

Mirage. (2012, October 4). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirage

 

Grand mirage seen in the Haikou City, Hainan Province, China | HainanWel.com- DAILY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE WORLD NEWS. (2011, May 10). Home | HainanWel.com- DAILY ENGLISH-LANGUAGE AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE WORLD NEWS. Retrieved December 2, 2012, from http://hainanwel.com/en/hainan-news/477-mirage-haikou%20-%20hainan.html

 

Nuclear Power

 

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity. In 2007, the IAEA reported there were 439 nuclear power reactors in operation in the world, operating in 31 countries. Also, more than 150 naval vessels using nuclear propulsion have been built.

 

We can use nuclear power, however, the problem of nuclear power is generated waste is highly toxic, very dangerous. The nuclear power must be safely stored. In addition, there are some costs associated with the safety of nuclear power, if the accident occurred, the environmental consequences would be disastrous.

 

Because of nuclear power there are many disasters around the world. I have already watched the video about nuclear power in class. This video suggests. China has a lot of problems due to nuclear power. The influence of several villages because of they are too closed to some nuclear power stations. They are easy to get cancer, because the land, water and food are polluted by nuclear power. After, eat and drink, it can easily cause disease.

 

The video also showed they have complained to the government. However, the government does not give them a reply. The government has been aware of this issue, I think because they are more careful about money than those people.

 

I think we should use some of the sustainable development of energy, such as solar and wind power. This can protect the environment. Although their use is not wide enough, but I believe due to the development of the technology, these new energies must be widely utilized.

Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is a pattern of economic growth in which resource use aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come. The concept of sustainable development is often broken out into three constituent parts: environmental sustainability, economic sustainability and sociopolitical sustainability. Today I am going to talk about environmental sustainability.

Our development is not sustainable, because deforestation, overpopulation and global warming.

 

Deforestation, it refers to the loss of natural forest logging and burning. Deforestation due to agriculture, logging operations for timber and urbanization. Farmers to create space for the land to grow crops, grazing animals; felling of trees to manufacture paper and other related products; also urbanization, overpopulation need more land to build the building. Although forest cover about 30% of the earth, the world's rain forests could completely disappear hundred years at the current rate of deforestation.

 

 

More important is that overpopulation is one of a major cause of environmental degradation, overpopulation lead to increased pollution, use of resources, especially non-renewable resources, and need more space for people to live and work. It will cause a lot of problems.

 

 

Rising sea levels due to global warming, causing flooding in low-lying areas. Another 40% of the increase in storm activity and the extinction of wildlife species. Global warming is about the past 50 years, especially since the 1980s, the increase in temperature has been found all over the world. This is caused by the increase of carbon dioxide due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels. The most the country widely used fossil fuel transport. In contrast, there are many types of renewable energy, such as wind and solar energy are constantly replenished and will never run out.

 

 

But now we should be aware of this problem, we should leave a good environment for our future generations. Therefore, we can try to deal with. We can control the population, reduce pollution and carbon dioxide emissions and prevent deforestation.

 

 

Now, we invented renewable resources, in order to reduce the use of non-renewable resources, non-renewable resources are scarce and non-renewable resources such as fuel emissions harmful to the environment, it can be caused by global warming, soil erosion and air pollution. Therefore, some of the new power has been widely used, such as wind power, solar power, wave power generation. Is more important is that the waste can be recycled, such as paper, plastic. The same time, we can also reuse water, because it is scarce, for example, we can use the water to wash vegetables and wiping the floor, then we can use the water last, we can use it to rinse cotton printing cloth. In this manner, it can be more sustainable.

 

 

Development is something that is essential for the survival of human beings. So as long as people know how to keep development sustainable, and understand how to apply it in the developmental progress, it will help humanity to keep on evolving.