1918 Flu

The Spanish Flu as it was known claimed the lives of anywhere from 50-100 million people from mid-1918-1920. Brought on from the end of the First World War, the disease affected an estimated 500 million (28% of the global population of the time), killing 3% of the world's humans. It spread all over, even reaching the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. While it was not related to Spain, it was given the name due to both the King of Spain becoming gravely ill with it and the fact that the most reliable coverage at the time came from Spain.

Experiemental Forest

We noticed the effects of both erosion and the pine beetle on the forest with some trees having completely fallen over. Furthermore, we noticed the rocks with mosses growing on them, allowing for more plants to grow on top of them. This is me hugging a tree. The relationship didn't last. He had serious commitment issues to work through before he jumped into something serious.

Ocmulgee

The Ocmulgee Mounds commemorate the 17,000 years of habitation of the Macon area. The people who lived here migrated at the end of the ice-age when warmer weather led them south-ward. Around 2500 BCE, pottery shards started appearing in the area. These people would use plant matter in their pottery which would rot away or burn when placed in fire, leaving wormholes throughout it.The mounds were probably built in the early Mississippian Period when people began to use the fertile floodplain to plant crops. Their society remained there and became known as the Muscogee tribe until their culture was obliterated by white, gold-hungry European males, as usual.

Campus Adventures

Five Trees:
Palm-like trees outside of the Engineering building.
Evergreen tree outside of Willingham that serves as the Christmas tree.
Much taller evergreens which grow at various places on campus.
Chestnut Trees between Greek Row and the UC.
Magnolia Tree outside of Willingham.

Five Plants
Various shrubs grown for decorative purposes, such as the MU topiary outside of the Administration building.
Dandelions which grow randomly on campus and in neighboring Tatnall Square Park.
Grass: It is everywhere and it counts.
Bush covered in pink flowers outside of Willingham.
Black Mold :)

Five Animals
Squirrels
Robins
Bees
Earth worms
Pigeons

Five Rocks
Quartz
Granite
Gneiss
Limestone
Feldspar

Erosion
The parking lot above the Engineering building that is on an incline shows signs of erosion.
The sides of the WSC also showed bare earth, indicating possible erosion.
The parking lot in front of the CTA building
The area in front of the old bookstore.
The hill in front of the UC.

Burgess Shale

Burgess Shale is a fossil field located in British Columbia (as part of the Canadian Rockies). This area was discovered in the early 1900's and is still a significant source for pre-Columbian geology and fossil studies. Below are anomalocaris, wiwaxia, hallucigenia, opabinia, waptia, and marrella, common fossils that would be found in this area.

Icebergs

Icebergs are a natural phenomenon that occur when large chunks of ice break off of a much larger glacier or ice sheet and float freely in the open water. These puppies are monitored as they present a danger to ships in the North Atlantic (see  RMS Titanic). They have a tendency when they melt to make a fizzing sound due to air bubbles frozen inside.

Soil

http://www.color-chart.org/munsell-color-chart.php

http://soils.cals.uidaho.edu/soilorders/orders.htm

Georgian soil~
Utisol is a type of soil found in most humid temperate or sub-tropical climates. It is characterized by low fertility. They are also usually where large forests will spring up. Georgians will know them for their association with yellow or red clay which is common in the soil.

eXtremeophiles

The Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National park is a striking example of thermophiles at work. Red and green bacteria exist all around the hotspring and produce the vivid colors noticed here. The high heat in their environment is what classifies them as extremophiles and these bacteria thrive in the hot temperatures where no other organisms exist.

The Life of a Tomato Plant

I have named my plant Florida del Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Gutiérrez de Joplin, after a combination of Florida Evans from the hit 1970's sitcom Maude (and its spin-off  "Good Times"), Spanish pop sensation Charo and American musician and world-class alcoholic and heroin addict, Janis Joplin. My first week with the plant has gone thusly:
2-21- I place the plant on a window in my bedroom and water it with one tablespoon of water. I then expose it to one hour of The Carpenters' Greatest Hit as I felt a softer sound would be less  stressful for the plant in its first few hours.
2-22- I water the plant the same amount as before. The soil absorbs it well. No music.
2-23- Watered as usual. No changes. Played Edith Piaf for the three hour period I was in class.
2-24- Watered and noticed the soil was getting soupy. Moved to a more constantly lit area. No music.
2-25- Lighter water (half a teaspoon) so to avoid flooding the plant. No music.
2-26- Watered again and noticed a soupy quality. Consulted an online source. Played Cass Elliot and Janis Joplin on shuffle.
2-27- Did not water to avoid soupy soil. Begin to fear for the worst. Looked up Catholic Last Rites and read them to the plant, just in case. Should Florida not make it, I have also decided to invest in sunflowers to be grown outside of the house. I pick a more mixed playlist with an distinct blues feel. On the list: Koko Taylor, Tracy Chapman and Billie Holliday.
 3/2 - Last effort. Moved outside into direct sunlight under screen to protect from vermin that would eat Florida.
3/4- Success! The first sign of a sprout today, proving that 1). Florida isn't dead and 2.) Not everything I love leaves me. :D

Lab week 3.

Distance Traveled: 0.28 miles.
1. Black bottle with a Log inside.
2. Clear bottle with black eyed peas inside
3. Red bottle with log inside
4. RX bottle with hotsauce inside
5. RX bottle with soda tabs inside.
6. Clear bottle with chalk inside
7. Clear bottle with a battery inside
8. RX bottle with Magnet and a small car inside.
Geocaching is an activity in which participants use a GPS to navigate to a predetermined location where other participants have left some sort of trinket for people to find. It can be something simple or some thing of sentimental value. The point is coordinates are used for the location of the object that is in question and is used to locate it.
http://www.geocaching.com/
It could be valuable in environmental research in pinpointing certain locations that might be of environmental interest. For example, using coordinates to identify certain spots, one could identify a particular tree that might be worth studying due to its exposure to pollution. Other examples could be certain places where core samples were taken or where water contained certain toxins. 

Another Explanation for the Mass-death of birds.

/http://www.theonion.com/articles/paranoid-duck-convinced-cia-killing-off-us-bird-po,18953/

Animal- In Soviet Russia, dolphin hunts you!

Thanks to icons such as Sea World and Flipper, the dolphin has gained a reputation as one of nature's brightest and most capable of creatures. This is true. Dolphins are truly very intelligent animals who use problem solving skills and team work when hunting and are the only non-primate animals to engage in pleasure sex. However, dolphins also have the potential to be quite dangerous- particularly in the case of the Soviet military. As part of a Naval research in the Soviet Union, dolphins were trained to attack enemy vessels. It didn't end there. They were able to distinguish Soviet submarines from American ones based on the sound of the propellers and were trained to either kill enemy sailors caught in the water, or bring them to the surface for capture. Some even were trained for kamikaze missions in which they would have carried mines on their backs that would explode when hitting enemy ships. This sort of changes what we might have thought before, doesn't it? Flipper was, in fact, a Communist.

Landmark- Jeita Grotto

Located in Lebanon, the Grotto consists of two limestone caves just north of Beirut. The two are each on their own marvelous to look at, but combined form a proverbial geological treasure trove. The bottom one includes a river (which is the only way to access the lower cave). This river is an invaluable source of freshwater for a large portion of Lebonese people. It is currently competing to be one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Fingers crossed, people.

National Park- Spring Time in Alaska

http://www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

Denali National Park is in Alaska around the base of Mount McKinley, the tallest mountain in the United States. Alaska's relatively low population makes for less development, but also attracts large industries due to Alaska's oil reserves, which leads to constant efforts by environmentalists to enforce conservation ideals. Apart from that, this park houses abundant wildlife including gold eagles. 10 points for guessing how many of those species are represented in the Palin's living room.

Ice, Ice Baby

http://www.heimaslod.is/index.php/Vestmannaeyjar_Research_and_Study_Center

This center in Iceland focuses on marine studies as well as general environmental issues in southern Iceland. This center was especially appealing to me due to Iceland's unique usage of geo-thermal energy that has become world famous. Furthermore, I was interested in studying the impact that Iceland's 2008 economic crisis might have had on scientific and environmental research.

Robben Island From Above

 

This image is from Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa. Originally used by Dutch colonists as a leper colony and mental asylum, the island gained its fame in the late 1900's as a political prison for anti-Apartheid activists such as Nelson Mandela and current South African president, Jacob Zuma. I visited there in the summer of 2010 with Mercer On Mission. This map traces out the first part of the island including the main prison and graveyard for lepers. The black spot indicates the first time I (or most of the people on the trip) had ever seen a penguin in the wild. Don't be deceived; they are anything but cute and cuddly. 

Crater Lake Bathymetric Map

United States Tornado Reports from 1950-2004 Map