Going Green

Well i must say that the idea of "going green" in the first part of the semester was a really exciting and awesome thing to me. It was new, and therefore it had to be fun. Now I just get sick and tired of this ( if Professor Smith is reading this, and I know he is, do not pay close attention to the following). When once upon a time you would get an assignment from a teacher to do over the weekend, you would normally do it and hand it in, just like that...well maybe not for every teenager. lol. But now with all the technology that has increased, things are no longer like that. You have a nice weekend awaiting you but because of the fact that you can be sent homework over the internet, it automatically means that you have to continually check your mail whether it be e-mail or netmail, and just in case you forget you are screwed. That really can put a damper on things. Then there are the deadlines. I am from Jamaica and although we have the advantage of computers over there like the rest of the world, you could also say we are very "backward" to say the least. Until I came to this country I have never used a computer before. I mean other than the fact that I would play games on my sister's work computer, I never had access to one. Due to this, I am not very accustomed to going paperless. Paper was all I had at one point. So for me to be doing every thing on this wretched computer that crashes, shut down and malfunctions every chance it gets, I am surprised I have not lost my cool as yet.
Now I know that I am doing this all for a very good cause and I should just suck it up and quit complaining, but let's face it. I am a human and that's how we are. Sacrifice for good is one hell of a thing. It's so easy to do the wrong things that doing right seems so hard. I have however taken my first step toward making my contribution toward society. I have convinced my mom to trade out the other light bulbs for fluorescent bulbs (energy saving), and I am very glad to report that she has fallen in love with them. Not only are they brighter but they are said to cost less than the regular ones. I on't know how much I can do but as my mom normally says "every little counts."

The Museum of Natural History

On Wednesday the 24th of October 2007, myself along with my many classmates went on a small trip to the Museum of Natural History with our Professor Jason Smith. The purpose of this trip was to broaden our knowledge on global warning and to look around and identify varios things mentioned in Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth," after which we were expected to elaborate on them. Upon arrival we were placed into groups in which we could work together as a team. It was a really fun and enlightening experience.

In Al Gore's film, he explains many things about greenhouse gases. He tells us what it is and how it functions. If I remember correctly, he uses a cartoon to get his message across. Alot of us were fascinated by this, but how many of us really stopped to think about the point he was trying to make? Greenhouse gases are many chemical compounds found in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. With water vapor, the planet is warm enough to support life over most of it's surface. This helps to make it the most important green house gas ever. That is why without it, the Earth's temperature would be below freezing. Solar radiation warms the Earth's surface. Some portions of the heat is radiated back to the atmosphere where it is trapped by greenhouse gases. My group also learned about the atmospheric layers. They are: thermosphere, mesosphere, stratosphere and trophosphere.

Climate can also be recorded in ice. According tof some information posted at the site underneath the preserved ice, the composition of air bubbles, dust and ice itself are trapped and this records changes in temperature,humidity,atmospheric circulation,volcanic activity,extent of sea ice and even atmospheric pollution by human activity. Ice has numerous components that make it up as stated above. In Al Gore's film, he showed pictures and animations to bring across his meanings. He showed us the climate system and how the sun's rays would bounce off of the ice back into the sky. This would cause the ice to melt faster. But because of all the pollutin that we as human's create, the populaton of ice has begun to deteriorate. Temperature which is the ratio of oxygen isotopes, sea salt which is sodium concentration and dust which has calcium concentration; help scientists notify what year the particular pillar of ice was formed and what temperature it was. ( look above for eg. of pillar of ice) The temperature normally exists at the top of the ice, the sea salt in the middle, and the dust at the bottom. In the core of the ice there is the cold, warm, and the younger dryas period. Whenever there are high levels of sea salt and dust, scientists know that there is the cold period. When the levels are vice versa, the period of time is usually warm.

Nature as Media

Another aspect of our assignment was to find a hall in the museum that dealt with living beings. Out of Spitzer's many hall's of Human Origin, my group members and I (La'Relle and Justin) decided to focus on Vertebrates. Dinosaurs being our main focus. Vertebrates are animals with a backbone and brain case. The first vertebrates to occupy the Earth were fishes. That was approximately 500 years ago. For 150 years they lived in water, then 360 years ago they moved to land. Since then, they have become very diverse. While strolling through the hall, we encountered a documentary film about veretebrates. The 5 minute movie was about how vertebrates came into existence. While viewing this short film, I noticed some artistic proofs of principle being; logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is another name for logic. In the film we heard that in Yucatan, there were tremendous changes in temperature and acid rain begun to fall. The dinosaurs could not adapt to this environment and they all died. However, birds survived. It has been said that birds came from dinosaurs. Dinosaurs had a certain type of hole in their nostril that made them extinct. Birds are said to have this same exact hole in the nostril that dinosaurs had 65 years ago. When my group and I entered the room where the short film was being aired, it was clear to me that ethos was present. The person talking about the animals (speaker) caught my attention as it begun. Her persuasive appeal was amazing. She had a voice that was soothing and tranquil, yet not enough to let one dose off. Along with me, I could see that other individuals caught in her webb. We all practically sat there in ooh's and ahh's as we learnt about dinosaurs. Personally, I was complaining because we were focusing on dinosaurs instead of mammals. But I have to admit that along with the crowd I was mesmerized.

One form of media that I could definately compare to the exhibit we saw was film. There was a whole lot of cinematic effects in there. I saw good use of lighting to help convey a point. I saw different angles, normal angle being the main one. There was a lot of camera movement as well. There was zooming and panning left and right, sometimes when there would be a chart; example of the different types of veretebrates, the camera would move on a crane going back from a close up/medium close up to reveal a long shot. Talking about animals in film is not much different than a film about anything else. Things are usually the same, special effects, you name it. I learnt alot that day. It was truly memorable.

Estimated price range for Ingredients

Price Range


Ox-Tail

1) 2 lbs ox-tail: $12

2) 1 onion: 50 cents

3) 2 tomatoes: 50 cents

4) 1/2 sweet pepper: 10 cents

5) scotch bonnet pepper: 20 cents

6) 2 teaspoon garlic powder: 5 cents

7) food coloring: 60 cents

8) 2 oz olive oil: $1

9) all purpose seasoning: 50 cents

10) thyme and pimento seeds: 10 cents each

11) 2 tablespoon ketchup: 50 cents

12) 1 can butter bean: $1

13) salt: 5 cents

14) 2 tablespoon margarine: 30 cents

Rice and Peas

1) 4 cups of rice: $1.50

2) 1/4 lb red peas: $1

3) 2 tablespoon margarine: 30 cents

4) 1 pack coconut milk: $1

5) garlic: 20 cents

6) scotch bonnet pepper: 20 cents

7) escallion: 10 cents

8) salt: 5 cents

Recipe for my favorite meal (cont'd)

Rice and Peas.

1) 4 cups rice

2) 6 cups of water

3) 1/4 lb peas

4) 2 tablespoon margarine

5) 1 pack of coconut milk

6) garlic

7) scotch bonnet pepper

8) escallion

9) salt

Method

1) Wash peas

2) Throw into pressure cooker with coconut cream and 6 cups of water and cook for about 20 minutes

3) Wash rice and add to pot with peas after it is cooked.

4) Add more water, but just enough to barely cover the rice.


5) Place a whole scotch bonnet pepper into pot along with beaten escallion and margarine.

6) On low heat cook for about 25 minutes. continue to check with fork. no stirring
Serves 4

Recipe for my favorite meal

Rice and Peas with Ox-Tail.

Ingredients

Ox-Tail

1) 2 lbs ox-tail

2) 1 onion

3) 1/2 of a scotch bonnet pepper

4) 2 tomatoes

5) thyme

6) pimeto seeds

7) 2 teaspoon garlic powder

8) food coloring

9) a dash of all purpose seasoning

10) 2 oz of olive oil

11) 2 tablespoon ketchup

12) 1 can butter bean

13) a pinch of salt

14) 2 tablespoon margarine

Method

1) Wash and clean Ox-Tail. make sure all the fatty substances are removed.

2) Cut up the tomatoes, onion, sweet pepper, scotch bonnet pepper and thyme.

3) Add the all purpose seasoning, food coloring, garlic powder and salt.

4) Make sure to blend in these ingredients with the Ox-Tail.

5) Over low heat, place pot over stove and pour in the olive oil. Make sure to use the required amount because the Ox-Tail already contains oil.

6) Add Ox-Tail to pot but not the seasonings. throw water into pot. but not enough to drown the flavor.

7) Cook for about an hour or until meat is tender.

8) When this is done, add the rest of ingredients into pot. Continue to stir.

9) Cook for 5-10 minutes.

Serves 4.

Food Assignment (part 3)

Monday
Monday I left the house hungry. i seem to do that alot lately. Since monday is the shortest day of the week for me it wasn't a big deal. I got up, put my things together for school, had my bath, then rushed out the door to catch the bus. My first and only class for the day was Mass Media with Professor Louis. After class I headed to the cafeteria where i bought a stawberry, banana smoothie. then i headed straight to the trainstation.
When i arrived home, I decided to make myself a sandwich consisting of potato bread, mayonnaise, turkey bologna, ketchup and cheese. yummy! when i was finished, i drank some chocolate tea.
For dinner i ate rice and peas with mixed vegetable and corned beaf. For me, that was the easiest thing to prepare for that evening. I was tired and lazy. lol. after eating, i realised I still wasn't filled completely so i went into the refigerator and took out some strawberries which i ate greedily. lol. A strawberry, kiwi snapple hlped it to go down with much more comfort.