The nuclear disaster in Japan - Nuclear Energy

Since I heard from the tsunami in Japan and the nuclear disaster that happened two months ago, I've been interested in what exactly failed to protect the facility and the population from this disaster as it was supposed to be safe. I'd like to explain what I found out.

First, from the news in the german television, I heard that the nuclear facility had emergency generators, so they could keep running the cooling system as long as they had enough oil. the only problem was that they were in the cellar of the building. So, when the tsunami entered the building the water went down and broke them. I think that wasn't thought out well when they built the nuclear plant.

Moreover, the Japanese government bought the nuclear technology directly from the USA, including the safety measures. In America, there aren't many tsunamis, if there are any. American nuclear facilities are secure for tsunamis up to 10m of height. In Japan, there are statistics that say that there is a bigger tsunami approximately every 10 years, so they would have needed higher security, but they put the same measures as in America. So I think it was quite clear that someday something would happen, but I think not even the Japanese govenment thought it would be such a disaster.

Finally, I think Japan should think over all of their nuclear facilities and secure them better so there won't happen anything like this again.

A sentence from HOME - History of a journey

"In the great adventure of life on Earth, every species has a role to play, every species has its place. None is futile ur harmful. They all balance out."

I think this sentence is entirely true! The Earth has alwys been well balanced out where every being needs of others. For an example, you only have to think about the food chain. For example, in an ocean, there is plankton, which is eaten by small fish. Bigger fish eats those, and so on until the biggest ones, like tuna or even sharks. If the small organisms disappeared, the bigger ones wouldn't have anything to eat and die out. If the bigger ones weren't there, the small ones would reproduce and die much less, so there would be an overpopulation and more or less the same consequences. Of course, humans are considered to be on top of the food chain.

the problem comes when this balance is broken, like we humans do. So, considering the same example as before, we catch too many tunas. So, the smaller fish have less natural enemies as before and can reproduce more, causing the above said overpopulation. More of those smaller fish means they need more food, like plankton. So they eat and eat more and more plankton until theres nothing left. As it can't regenerate because there are too many fish eating it away too fast, those fish will start to die out, causing the organisms higher in the food chain to have no food, too. So, entire ecosystems can die out because of us catching too much of one single species.

To sum up, I think we should be cautious about nature in every way we can and be respectful with our planet, so our children and all the other generations will have a place to live as nice as ours still is.

Osama Bin Laden's death

"Justice has been done." - That's what Obama said when Osama Bin Laden's death was announced. What I was asking myself immediately when I knew it: didn't they want to judge him properly? If so, why did they kill him directly? Couldn't they get him alive?
In my opinion, the american soldiers could have caught Bin Laden alive and bring him to the USA, but Obama didn't want them to. I think Bin Laden would have had too many things to say, I mean, for example, the 11th september, as I don't think Bin Laden is to blame for that. There were too many coincidences and strange happenings. The American government didn't want Bin Laden to talk, so they killed him before he could. That's my opinion about it.
I would like to hear other opinions about it. So, what do you people think?

Lego is fun! - Minecraft

I know you now might think I'm crazy, talking about Lego. But it's not exaclty like that. I'm talking about my new game: Minecraft, a game that's now getting very well-known nearly all around the world.

The reason why I compare Minecraft to Lego is that its entire world is built out of blocks, even animals and the player are square-shaped. And at the start, that's all: you're dropped in a completely virgin world and you can start collecting blocks of different materials, like dirt, gravel, wood... When you collect wood, you can build a workbench and create some tools to get stone, coal, iron... But at night, you have to be careful because monsters will come out.

What's special about Minecraft is that, because of that "blocky" design - you can build almost anything out of those blocks because you can place them as you want. It's a game that is a lot of fun if you're a creative person and you like to build.

I very like the idea that game follows: a mix of building, searching for ressources and surviving in one. It's a very nice idea. Moreover, here you have some photos. What do you think about it? Did you know it?

Dialogue: a profession that's dying out

A dialogue between Anna and a family friend, Mr. Adams.

- Hello Mr. Adams! How are you doing?
- Hello Anna! I'm fine, thank you. What's the matter?
- Errr.. There's something I've been wanting to ask you for.. for quite a long time now...
- So, what is it?
- Ummm.. There aren't many shepherds like you left here.. I mean in Spain, are they?
- That's right. Many things have changed that made us shepherds, like, less necessary: at least not so many of us are needed now.
- Really? And what has changed exactly?
- Some years ago, shepherds were nomades. They wandered with their lifestock.. I mean their cows, sheep and such.. So they wandered up a mountain during spring and then had to stay up there all summer long. In autumn, they got there herds back down. They always went were the grass was the freshest.
- But.. you don't wander around with your cows.
- (laughs) No. Nowadays we keep our lifestock in stables and feed them hay and industrial food. Now it's a lot easier and less time-comsuming to have big herds.
- Ummm... So now a single shepherd can produce more milk, meat or such and... that's why this profession is slowly dying out?
- Exactly. Also there are new machines to help us do our job.
- (laughs) Yeah, I've seen them. So.. thank you very much, Mr. Adams.
- You're welcome. But now I have to get back to work. If you have more questions, feel free to ask!
- Thank you again. See you!
- Bye!

Formal letter - World Nuclear Association

Fountain street 3
50397 Traverse Town

12th May 2011

World Nuclear Association
...
...
To the director general, John Ritch

Dear Mr. Ritch,
I am writing this letter in order to give my opinion about the nuclear accident in Japan after the tsunami a month ago and to give possible solutions for the future.

First of all, I think the problem would not have been so terrible if the emergency generators had not been in the cellar of the building. I think it was a big mistake while planning how to build the nuclear plant, thinking of the high risk of tsunamis in countries like Japan.

Furthermore, it is said that the nuclear plant of Fukushima was already obsolete and should have been shut down years ago. If that is true, I think other older nuclear facilities should be shut down and tested, at least.

Of course there can not be done anything about the Fukushima disaster now, but I think you should learn from it and try to prevent other nuclear accident like Japan's.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Kairi Johnsson

The self-evaluation of my oral presentation

In the oral presentation of my research project, I used a Powerpoint, almost the same as the one for my catalan presentation of the project. It was like a summary of the most important things and it helped me to not get lost. So of course it supported the presentation. The timing of my presentation was okay.
I looked at the audience and didn't read from notes (as I actually didn't have any), but from the Powerpoint. Ididn't get lost, because I had done that presentation before in catalan. Gestures and eye contact definitely got better than last year.
I believe I introduced new information to my audience, referring to my project and tree species. Some of my information was complicated (the different species), but I think I managed to explain it in an easy-to-understand way. The only source for my presentation was, of course, my research project.
The grammar was correct, I think I got confused once or twice and just repeated the sentence. Vocabulary was also okay, I tried to use scientific words, but easy to understand. I also used sentence linkers. My pronunciation was also allright, I think. I checked the pronunciation for words I didn't know, so I was prepared.
For my next presentation, I should work again on body language and eye contact. I would give myself a 7 or an 8.

My text was this one:

"Hello everyone. I want to present you my research project, which has the title 'botanical route through Castelló d'Empúries". I chose that topic because I got the interest in plants from my mother, she loves looking after her flowers in the garden. First, I'll explain what my objectives were. The first one was learn to classify different species of trees. then, I wanted to design a botanical route in a zone I chose first. Finally, i had the objective of checking the route by doing it with 1st ESO students. To accomplish that objectives, I followed the following methodology: First, search theoric information of the different trees I could find. Then, I had to search for books and maps of the zone I wanted to study, the 'Passeig de les Oques'. The practical part was aking photos of the trees in the zone, make dichotomous keys and design the route. The last would have been to check the route. I decided to divide the zone to study into two subzones. So, the first subzone would be between the 'Pont Vell' and the bridge of the Sant Clara street and the second one from that same bridge to the Castelló Nou bridge. I went to the zone and took photos of the different trees I found there, then I made an inventory. As you can see, each page of that inventory contained the scientific and popular names of the species, a short description and photos. The last parts of the research project were the ones I liked the most: designing the route, making the exercices and drawings and the dichotomous keys. Dichotomous keys are like questions where you have to choose from two or three possible answers and then continue with the question you are told, until they give you the name of the species you are looking for. After doing this, I also designed some exercises, which were basically to help the children to see what they had to focus on. They had some drawings to help them understand some words that could be difficult. After doing all the research project, I had the following conclusions: firstly, there are 11 different species which are typical river-side trees, although the 'Passeig de les Oques' is a zone that is influenced by humans. secondly, most of the species are represented by only one tree, but there are 3 that are very common: Platanus x hispanica, the banana tree, at zone one, and Populus alba and Populus nigra, which are called 'pollancres' in catalan, in zone 2. Due to a lack of time I couldn't check the route with 1st of ESO students, although I would have liked to do it. In general, I'm satisfied with my research project, but I would have liked to have the route ready earlier to be able to do it with the children. And that's the end of my presentation. Do you have any questions?"

Botanical route through castelló d‘empúries

View more presentations from the_two_memories.