The Clash of the Titans: Hurricanes Vs. Typhoons Vs. Cyclones!

Hello people of Earth! (and possible E.T's reading this)

I have a really interesting post for you guys today that I think all of us want to know about. It's going to be about the difference between the typhoon, the hurricane and the cyclone. 

To be honest, the typhoon and the hurricane are both the same thing. Surprised? Actually, they are both the same weather anomaly, it's just named differently depending on where it actually occurs. For example, if it occurs in the northern Pacific, it's known as a hurricane. But if it occurs in the Indian Ocean, it's known as a cyclone. It all just depends on where it happens!


Image of a cyclone pattern

Winds must reach the speeds of 120 kilometres to be considered a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone.

I know this post was short, but I hope it was informative. This question has been bothering me for quite a while, until I finally looked it up. Here is where I got my information from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131023-typhoon-hurricane-cyclone-primer-natural-disaster/?rptregcta=reg_free_np&rptregcampaign=20131016_rw_membership_n1p_intl_ot_w#

Hope you enjoyed reading this, have a great day! :)

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Contaminated Water Leak...

Hello readers! I have a very interesting post for you today, so get your snacks ready!

     An earthquake in March 11th, 2011 caused  fuel-rod meltdowns at 3 nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan. Basically, this made the area around the nuclear reactors extremely radioactive, such as the sky and the sea next to it. A company called Tepco (Tokyo Electric Power Co) has been trying to control the situation since then. They have been pumping large amounts of water over the reactors to cool them down. Then they take that water and store them in tanks over the ground since that water becomes radioactive. But recently, one of the tanks leaked over 300 tones of contaminated water due to structural issues. This leaked water has been mixing with the sea water, and when radiation tests were performed around the tanks, the radiation readings were around 2,200 millisieverts. That is enough radiation to kill a person within a few hours.


Fukushima Nuclear Plant

     Now what the Japanese government is proposing, is to spend about half a billion US dollars to try and stabilize the nuclear plant area. They are also going to use some of that money ($330 Million) to build a 1.5 kilometre ice wall which will prevent the contaminated water from the sea to spread. Some people say it's a crazy idea and how it will never work; but experts on this subject say it's not too far-fetched and it could work, even with all the potential obstacles.

     If the ice wall project starts now, it should be completed by March of 2015. The wall will surround 4 reactor buildings with a system of pipes which carry a coolant of -40 degrees. The pipes will freeze the soil around it, creating a frozen "wall' of soil which will block any contaminated water out into the sea.

This is extremely interesting news, you can read more about it here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/cold-feat-how-japan-plans-to-contain-fukushimas-nuclear-contamination-by-building-a-14-kilometre-ice-wall/article14117977/?page=all

     I basically summarized what I read in the newspaper, so you can read a much more in-depth article by clicking the link provided above. I want your opinion on this matter, do you think the ice wall is a good idea? Feel free to leave your opinions in the comment section below, and as always, thank you so much for reading my post! Have a great day!

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Crazy Facts!

Hello fellow reader!

      I was doing some research on the environment yesterday and I came across some really interesting facts which I am going to relay to you. Here they are:

1) 50 Million acres of rainforest space is lost every year, that's the size of England, Scotland and Wales COMBINED! 


2) Less than 1% of the water on Earth can be used for drinking. A lot of freshwater is wasted due to faulty water systems, and a lot of other freshwater is used for agriculture.

3) The U.S (313 million poeple) produces more garbage than China (1.3 billion people). Every hour, 2.5 million plastic bottles are tossed into the garbage, and 570 disposable diapers are thrown every second.

I got these 3 facts from http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2008/11/26/amazing-frightening-green-facts-environmental-statistics/ . Click on the link and read some more interesting facts on the environment.

On an unrelated note, some schools in Canada are starting tomorrow. I hope all of you students going back to school have a great year! Try out new clubs, get good grades, and get involved with your community! (in the good way of course)
Until next time! :)

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Update Post

Hello Viewers!

I am currently in India, enjoying a really laid back vacation. More specifically, I am in a small town called Nagercoil, which is really a beautiful place. The nature has really been preserved (in most places atleast) and that makes Nagercoil and awesome place to stay. It's actually pretty close to the southern most tip of India, called Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari is where the Indian ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea meet. That's just a little geography for you, but anyway. I will try to upload pictures as soon as possible, so stay tuned! Until next time!

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Vacation Time! (AKA Summer)

Hello fellow blog reader!
How are all of you enjoying your summer vacations? Sorry I haven't updated my blog in a while  I have just been busy with exams and other school related activities recently, but finally I am on my summer vacation! I am going to India for a month, so I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures there and try to upload them regularly! So stay tuned, I should be able to tweet about my blog as son as its updated from now on. Hope all of you have a great day, I'll see you all in India!

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Spring is upon us!

Hello everyone!

Spring is finally upon us, which means the weather is changing (for those in North America), the birds are singing and the trees are finally budding! I love this time of year, as I'm sure a lot of you do as well.

I just thought I would post this picture of a tree just beginning to bloom. It looks like this spring is slightly late, but it's definitely here. So let's enjoy it while we can! How is spring looking where you guys are?

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Happy Earth Day!

Hello Everyone!

    Today is the 43rd Earth day. A day, where people involved will try and conserve energy. Some things that people might do today is save electricity by turning off their air conditioners, or walk to nearby places instead of using cars. All of that is great, for the environment and it saves money as well! 

   1 billion people are expected to be actively participating today, trying to preserve the environment. It's a great movement to be part of, and it's not just a 1 day event. I believe it can be a starting point, or a practise. If there was an Earth day every month, our planet would be much better off. If regulating our emissions is practised, we could make our planet a lot greener.

  Anyway, I hope all of you are participating in some way, whether it's throwing away your garbage properly, or walking to your grocery store instead of driving. Thanks for reading!

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A Shocking Video!

Hello Earth-trotters!

     Yesterday, I was just scrolling through YouTube, when I came across this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekmMD8oYtJ0
I know it's a little old, but it still sends a powerful message. To summarize it, a large group of dolphins were stranded on the shoreline of Bataan (Philippines), because of a large wave which carried all of them over. Luckily, there were a lot of people on the beach that day to witness it, and if you keep watching the video, they actually help the dolphins go back into the water.

     When I saw all of them individually help each dolphin back into the water, I couldn't help but smile. I knew that something was abnormal about the water that day, because dolphins don't usually get carried to shore like how they did in the video. But think about this; if there weren't any people on the shore that day, all those poor dolphins would have been dead by now. However, all of them were there, and they decided to help. I think that we as a people are capable of great things, and seeing this amazing act of kindness really emphasized that. If we can help dolphins back into the water and save their lives, we can do so many other things to save other species lives!

I just wanted to post what I thought about that video, there are many more like that on YouTube, feel free to look around. I hope you really think about what you watch when you see videos like this. Thank you all for reading!

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Asteroid Mining Expedition?

Hello everyone!

    I have some really interesting news to share with you all today. A company in California, named "Deep Space Industries" has announced their plans of actually beginning a gold rush in outer space by mining asteroids! The company's chief executive David Gump says: "More than 900 new asteroids that pass near Earth are discovered every year. they can be like the Iron Range of Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century, a key resource located near where it was needed".

   "Deep Space Industries" plans to make a small group of spacecraft named "Fireflies" to go into outer space and get precious metals from the asteroids near Earth. They say the first trial run they will have will be in 2015, and if everything goes well during their trial run, they will go fully operational in 2016; estimated to be bringing back around 70 kg of gold, or any other precious metals.

   This is extremely interesting; I've only scratched the surface with information regarding this. I just briefly summarized one company's plans, there are other companies with plans of their own regarding asteroid mining. What do you all think about this, do you think this might be the next big thing in mining altogether?

Thanks for reading!  

Life of Pi!

Hello Everyone!

    Just last weekend, I went to the cinema with my family and watched 'The Life of Pi'. It was a brilliant movie, right down to the actors, plot and the scenery. But I'm writing about it today because of the power of nature that is displayed in the film.

    This is a spoiler alert, but the movie is largely set in the Pacific Ocean, where the main character is set adrift because the boat that was supposed to take him to Canada went down in a storm. His family died with the sinking of that ship, so he is the only one left on a lifeboat with a tiger. It was interesting because the main character "Pi", had to live for days in the ocean with the tiger on the lifeboat. He eventually trained the tiger, and it eventually learned to respect "Pi" and not...kill him. 

    They come across many storms in the ocean, which just shows how humans are absolutely defenceless against nature. He comes across an island next, which is a natural haven during the day. But it becomes a huge digestive system over night. Basically the water on that island turns toxic during the night, so if he tried to drink or swim in that water, he would just dissolve. 

The tiger realized this during the day and ran back to the boat during the evening. Pi didn't realize why the tiger did this, but during the night he realized. So the next morning (Pi slept on a tree during the night) he set off back on the boat. It just shows how animals are so much smarter than humans in a way. They have a natural awareness over terrain which humans will never possess. 

    I'm not sure why I'm writing this, I just found the movie really interesting. I would highly recommend it to anyone who's looking to watch a movie!