Plants from Mercer University!

Magnolia 

Vinca 

braford pear

Fringe plant 

Creep Myrtle 

Maps are often some of the most important way political philosophers can understand the tides of political opinions within the country. here are four types of map that illustrate the 2012 presidential election

Chlorpleth map



isarithmic map


dot density map



porpotional map



All these maps shown together present different, but all intriguing ways at presenting information that helps us understand the direction of opinion within a specific time frame.

Barometer
 You can make a simple homemade barometer by attaching a cut off balloon to the top of a glass bowl, then attaching a straw to that. The results are a makeshift tool that in inflates with air pressure.

As the straw goes up we know that there is a high pressure pressing down on the balloon, making the straw go up.

As the straw goes down we know that there is a low pressure letting the balloon inflate, making the straw go down.

In other words, as we present in this graph, the height of the straw and the air pressure is positive correlated.

I'm keeping a journal of the growth from my Sunflower plant

Sunflower Blog journal

Day 3

Day 7

Day 15

Day 21

rock labs

 My favorite three types of Rocks are Chalk, Obsidian, and Slate.

I guess I just really like the color slate, and the magazine Slate, and the sound slate. So when I had to chose three favorite rocks from three types of rocks for Metamorphosis I picked Slate. Metamorphosis rocks were other types of rocks then through pressure or some other effect became another type of rock. Slate originates from shale.

When I started to research slate  I realized how important it was to me. Along with my favorite sedimentary rock, slate is part of an awesome team. I want to be a professor and so I'm going to spend a lot of time with slate (ignore white boards)

And since we're here why don't we also talk about the second part of the team. Chalk a porous sedimentary rock.

  

That's a picture from a chalk board I made. Sedimentary rocks are a collection of material of the same type that form a rock. Chalk and Slate are as much a part of the University tradition as anything you could imagine.

The last rock is completely unconnected. Obsidian, in real life, is a cool igneous that is class like and formed in volcanoes. And while that is cool- a lot of lore, specifically Game of Thrones refers to obsidian as dragon glass.

So if you need to kill a white walker, you obviously use a glass blade, that's inside still contains dragon breath.

along with these rocks it would be useful to know the 12 orders of soil though they won't help you kill ice zombies 

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

There is a chart to make classification of these twelve 

Willet Science Center Parking Lot and the Importance of Smart Infrastructure

Willet Science Center Parking Lot and the Importance of Smart Infrastructure  

 For our first lab assignment, and to get accustomed to working with measurement, we tried to figure out how much rain would fall on a given parking lot in a rainstorm of a given height. The answer was around 70 thousand gallons. That answer not only tells us the need for effective runoff systems, it sparks in my mind the topic of smart infrastructure. If, for instance, seven swimming pools of water flooded a parking lot with insufficient runoff systems the cars, not to mention the environment, would be at serious hazard. This is demonstrative of the basic need for smart infrastructure.
                  There has been a lot of talk recently, about the decline of America's infrastructure. I think one of the reasons that it hasn't really caught on is that its hard to draw a connection. In america it seems like we have fine train systems and bus systems and buildings, and green space because our point of reference is the past. And for the last fifty years it seems we re at least equal to, if not marginally better than the past. However if you start to compare us to place like Japan, or Norway, or even Dubai, one starts to see how behind the times we are. The problem is that those costs get passed on, not to the people operating them, but to adjacent interests in subversive ways. Trains in america are high pollutants-- this effects the places they run through negatively and their slow speed, decreases their productivity that could increase the trans continental human capital exchange (that is to say, people with skills on one coast, are of no use to people on the other, or even half way through the country). The same reasons apply to efficiently draining waters, as those that respond to smart green spaces that would allow biological diversity to thrive without adversely effecting the day to day lives of humans. It's a question of ingenuity, which despite popular thought, is not dead in America. It's just not being used to it's best abilities      

The Political Environment

The Political Environment

The Kennedy’s, one of the most prolific political dynasty’s in American history, have produced some of the most influential  political actors of our time. One such character is Robert F Kennedy Jr. . The Kennedy's have been a constant political force for more than half a century now. RFK is the nephew of John F Kennedy, one of the most prominent leftist presidents of the modern era, despite his untimely demise.  RFK is son of, obviously, the first RFK who was a New York Senator until the time of his assassination in 1968. RFK  has been a constant environmental protector since he started working with river-keeper and explaining the things he stands up for, might help us to understand the landscape of environmental politics.  

He is the president of the Water Keepers Alliance, an organization fighting to protect over 1.6 million water ways across the globe. Kennedy has been a prominent voice for promoting American entrance into a new energy economy. He has pushed for wind, solar, nuclear (tentatively) energy over oil. He appeared on Morning Joe, a political morning show, warning that not only should we move to clean energy for our own sake, but because the Middle East and China have not shied away from the new sources of revenue. The government subsidies the coal industry at such a larger rate than the clean energy industry has left American clean energy companies susceptible to price dumping by places like China. Price dumping is a process in which a country floods the market of another company with drastically cheaper priced items. The result is that the native companies go bankrupt. The Clean Energy companies are not failing because they aren't able to compete in the market, but simply because the Chinese government has made Clean Energy a priority and they subsidize their companies at a rate that we don’t compete with in America.

On July 2009, Kennedy appeared on CNNMoney to talk about the enormous external cost of coal onto the people of America, despite it seemingly cheap sticker price. He says “ coal only appears cheap because the rest of us pay the cost. He says that “In New York State it’s  unsafe to eat almost any fresh water fish caught in the state because of the mercury that has been discharged from those plants end up polluting those places. According to the CDC one out of every six American women now have so much mercury in  her womb that her child is at the risk of severe birth defects. These are the types of externalized costs… You don’t see that cost when you pay your bill though”. There is certainly merit to what he is saying, but I wonder if he doesn’t lay blame in the correct places.    

The call for a push to clean energy is an interesting philosophic ethical lab, but it’s also a question of politics and economics. I believe in reducing the subsidies for oil companies, though I’m not so confident about raising subsidies for Clean Energy Companies. I understand the issue of price dumping by China, but the United States shouldn’t be fighting fire with fire. They should be taking steps to reduce protectionary measures on the whole by working through such international institutions like the WTO, which I believe, they have since his comments were made. On the case of the coal companies externalizing costs, he is mostly correct. However I would put the blame on our government. Our government has failed to protect citizens from extraordinary unseen threats like those of the externalized costs of coals. There should be some consumer advocacy for educating the public on issue, as such, that the mundane public would have no reason to be aware of, or have access to information about. While I’m not coals number one fan, it is a private economic forces’ goal to make money. So if there are costs they are able to externalize, then that is what they will do. It’s not honorable but it is reasonable within proper context. However, it’s the government’s job to protect us from threats so, large or invasive that we might not be able to see it in our own lives or protect ourselves against it. At least that is John Locke’s perspective, and he is just the one of the founders of classical liberalism and the inspiration for most of Jefferson influence into creating our nation, which is to say the least, considerable. The fact that the public has no champion in this fight is a failure of government.

I don’t want to be misunderstood, I’m not saying that I prefer coal over clean energy. I am a progressive and I favor progressive infrastructural development. Clean energy is the future. But perhaps its more time effective and pragmatic to blame the people we elected to serve us and not the enormous company whose sole mission it is to make money. Either RFK is clearly a figure in the American  body politic that spurs great debate and thought, and that is a legacy that’s a  proud addition to the Kennedy name.