Big Dig

  The Big Dig, also known as the Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T), is a huge project for the underground construction in Boston, Massachusetts. 

  It is to reroute a main highway to a underground tunnel under the heart of Boston, so that it will reduce the noise and pollution from the high way. The original site of the high way will be turned into a green public community area.  The project is divided into fifty independent parts. It will dig down about 85 inches and the deepest dig would be 120 inches. When the project is finished, there will bee about 14 million cubic yards of earth dug out, which is more than enough to fill 14 sports stadiums.

  Here is a picture of the proposed Big Dig building:

  The construction first brought out in 1971. It started in 1991 and estimated to be done in five years. But it exceeded its budget too much and fell behind the schedule for years. The total cost will be about 15 billion dollars, about 6 times more than the first estimated budge 2.5 billion dollars.

  During the construction of this most expensive highway, there were a lot of problem. In 2001, there were thousands of leaks in the ceiling and wall fissures. The water damaged the steel construction and fireproofing systems. It caused 10 million dollars to repair.

  Here's a video that the former mass inspector general talks about the problems of the Big Dig:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1807015n

Good city and bad city

Good city:
  I haven't been to many cities in America, but I did find Chicago a good city.

  It is located in the northwest of the Illinois, on the southwest coast of the Michigan Lake which is one of the Great Lakes. Such location gives it abundant water resource.
  Iis food supply comes from the Illinois agricultural industry. 80% of the land in Illionois is used for crop production, including corn, soy beans and wheat.
  Chicago has very good public transportation. It is the third largest inter-modal port in the world after Hong Kong and Singapore. Ships could go out and get in through Saint Lawrance River and Erie Canal-Hudson River. It has two international airports, O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport. Each one has around 30 minutes drive to the downtown area. It is not too close to the city that creates much noise, nor too far away that cause much inconvenience. The subway system and bus system in Chicago also makes it easy to travel around the city. It runs routinesly and the signs and station stops are clearly marked that even new comers to the city could easily find their way.
  The climate is very distinctive in each season. The average temperature in summer is 29°C to 17°C and 2°C to -11 °C in winter. There is a relatively big chance to encounter storms and blizzards in Chicago. But since it happens often, there are ways to not let such problems affect people's lives.

Bad city:
  There is no really bad city to me.If there are people living in that place, there must be something good that keeps them there. So it's only some relative bad aspects about the city that makes it bad. So to me, not having good public transportation and the tornado makes Macon a bad city to me.

  Macon is located in central Georgia. The closest international airport is Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport which is about two hours drive from Macon. Comparing with Chicago, it is very far away from the city. Since there is no public transportation like subway, it makes people hard to get there if they don't have a car. When traveling in the city, there is no clear signs about the route and time of the buses. The only way to connect with other places is driving through high ways. 
  The climate in Macon is warmer than Chicago. The average temperate ranges from 30°C to -1°C. The moste common natural disaters encountered in this area is tornado which could distroy much of the crops produced in Georgia such as peanuts, corns and soy beans. It would also destroy houses and basic constructions such as electricity supply, causing a lot of inconvenience to the people living in this area.

Wild card blog - Global warming gases

  Since I'm going to write the paper on climate change and global warming, I want to write something relate to this probem: global warming gases produced from human activities.
   There are three main gases that contribute to the global warming, carbon dioxide and methane and nitrous oxide.

  Carbon dioxide comes from burning fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. It might come from various ways, but mainly from power plants and transportation emissions. The statistics from the United Nations have shown that 80 to 85 percent of the carbon dioxide that is emitted to the atmosphere comes from the use of fossil fuel. Since the first industrial revolution, the carbon dioxide has increased dramatically.

  Methane is another important gas contributing to the global warming. It is produced from organism decaying in a low oxide enviroment. The main sources of the meethane in the atmosphere came from wetlands and marshlands. Human activities also contribute a large number of methane emission. Every year,rice cultivation produces 100Tg, cattle and sheep ranching produces 100－150Tg. There will be a net increase of methane by 350Tg every year.
  From the EPA website,nitrous oxide comes from "Primary human-related sources of N₂O are agricultural soil management, animal manure management, sewage treatment, mobile and stationary combustion of fossil fuel, adipic acid production, and nitric acid production." Even though 90 percent of it will be photolyzed from sun radiation.

Unnoticed power slipped away.

The vampire power, which is also called standby power, means the power consumed by the unplugged electronic devices after being turned off or turned into a standby mode, such as computers, TVs and microwave ovens. For some of the electronic devices, they are still consuming the power even though they are not performing primary functions. For instance, when a computer is turned off, there is some power consumed in order to do the things like keeping the time, searching for available wireless signals or saving settings. The amount of consumption varies depending on the different devices and the modes they are turned in. 

There are a lot of products that will draw standby power. According to the statistics on the Standby Power website, in a normal American house, there would be around forty products consuming the power. The total amount of power consumed consists of 10% of the residential electricity use. A lot of electricity has been used without any notice.

The main waste of the vampire power is from the inefficiency of the electricity. Not all the power is wasted, some of the standby power is actually essential for the electronic devices to perform normally. 

To reduce the waste on the vampire power, there are several things can be done:

First, people's awareness of such waste should be raised. Unplugging the electronic devices after turned off needs the prerequisite of people knowing the importance of unplugging them.

Second is to identify which devices that are consuming the vampire power. Basically, most product with external power supply, or batteries will draw power continuously. Therefore, we should unplug those that are not frequently used products. 

Use energy saving products that have high efficiency and less waste on vampire power.

Two pet compounds

  The two "pet" compounds that I pick for further research are stainless steel and PVC.

  Stainless steel got its name becausee it is not easy to leave any stains on it.It was first discovered by Harry Brearley in 1912, when he was seeking for an alloy that was sorrosion resistant for gun barrels. The key element in the stainless steel is the chromium. When there is more than 12% of the chromium in the steel, the chemical reaction will form a passivation layer covering the metal that protects it from air, water or any other acid and alkali. There are other elements that changes the hardness and ductibility of the steel, so that it could meet the demands for different applications. It can be used in various ways, such as building construction, trasportations, knives and cookers.

  When I was doing the research, I found a vedio clip that uses stainless steel drum to play. It's very cool!

  PVC is short for Polyvinyl Chloride. It was accidentally discovered twice in 1835 by Henri Victor Regnault and in 1972 by Eugen Baumann. The two substances discovered were exposed under sunlight and turned into white solids. Its Resin identification code is 3. It has a large usage amount in the world. Its physical property is stable, heat resisting, not easily corroded by acid and alkali. It can be used for the product of clothes, upholstery, tubes etc. There are some toxic additives in PVC, so it can't be used for food containers. When burning the PVC, it will produce dioxin that is polluting to the air.

  I'm not very familiar with all these federally funded programs in America, so I only searched a few on the internet. It might not be that comprehensive or accurate.
  I don't think any of the federally funded program should be eliminated. It's just the problem of whether the government has put the appropriate amount of resources to that sector or not. 
  One of the organizations that should be reduced is FBI. It deals with the issues of homeland security and safety. There is some overlapping areas that CIA also deals with. Even though these two agencies belong to different departments, they both need high intelligence, high technology and covering work. The cost on their agents' training and equipments should be rather high. I'm thinking maybe they could share some of the resources. They two have separate jobs and focus on different issues, so two are important. If they can really share resources, one could cut some of its funding or resources. 
  The other program that I think should be enhanced would be the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). They work to eliminate the discrimination such as race, sex and age on job application. As far as I know, there are still a lot of people not being treated equally. Women are not getting the same pay as men do, even though their workload is the same or even harder. Under such economic environment, the number of job applicants exceed the need of the market. Employers get more choices and they would prefer those younger people who can be more efficient on working. The discrimination can occur everywhere from job application process to the working environment. Therefore, I think this program should be maintained and enhanced.