Author Archives: jaynab2016

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Blog log two

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Trapped Beneath the Canyon

 

While reading the article Trapped by Aron Ralston, I learned about his survival story, and I was astonished by its captivating circumstances. This article was about Aron’s survival as his hand was trapped under a bolder for four days. He was hiking alone in a dangerous canyon, and he miscalculated his attempt to belay down the cliff; he ended up stuck there for four days without enough food or water. I chose to read this article because I too am interested in the outdoors and trying new adventures. After reading this, I realized the importance of planning ahead, being prepared, and to have someone know where you will be going at all times. Aron’s fatal mistake was not telling anyone where he was, and being ignorant of his own abilities. He assuming he could do something outside his capabilities. This article connects with me through my experiences in outdoor ed, a program I took here at riverside. We learned the importance of planning ahead to make sure everyone is safe that was similar to the theme of this article. The imagery in the novel was very vivid through explaining the canyon he was in, and through the “sick grayish colour” of his fingers. It offered insight into our lives by urging us not to complete his same mistakes through his own experiences. There are countless stories on the news of people going off trail and need rescuing by search and rescue that are similar to this article. Sometimes we become proud and don’t think that we need to take the time to be safe and use caution, but if we don’t use caution we could end up injured or lost. I was interested in this article because of its effective story telling, and the incorporation of an important life lesson.

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Blog Log

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Buying Experiences

 

I read the article Buying Experiences, Not things by James Hamblin and got amazing insight about the stem of our happiness and how to better improve our experiences. When we buy things, they are interesting and in use for about a week, but we may often get tired of the same old thing. We don’t have many happy memories of the times that we had something, and if we do, they are sometimes bland an usually unimportant; however, this article explains how buying experiences can make us happier. Buying things like vacations and movie tickets come with anticipation, and are generally tied with happy memories. I remember the times that I went to Australia with my family, or went to a concert with my friends more than I remember buying a new shirt.  I enjoyed this article because of its descriptiveness through its real life examples, and its insight into our actions. This topic relates to me because I want to live my life to the fullest, and achieve happiness in any way I can. It addresses the mindset of wanting to invest our money into opportunities instead of possessions. There has been some studies done that people with less money, are often happier than those with plenty of money. These people will often not spend all their profit on material things, but instead go somewhere and do something. This article establishes insight into the human condition, and may help us improve out happiness in the future. Using this information, I will try to save my money in the future to buy experiences instead of things, and try to make everyone around me happy.

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Environmental ethics

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The 3 R’s song is a song that I always listened to growing up. I watched Curious George growing up, and this song was commonly used. Because the words are so catchy, and the song so upbeat, I remember it to this day. This song positively effected my environmental ethic, because of its promotion of reduce, reuse and recycling. I like to think that this song has helped me to realize my intentions towards the environment and be more cautious of my decisions

Phones have now become a necessity in every ones life. Ads like these have been playing for almost all my life, encouraging all of the public to buy new ones. This in my opinion is damaging on my environmental ethic. It is negative because the more new phones come out, the more I want to buy new ones. The need for constant new technology harms the environment because of the new materials that we are in constant need of. We take from the earth to get these new products, and use in for our benefit.

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Cascadia Subduction Zone Response

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1. This documentary used several pieces of evidence to support their claim that we are in a dangerous location. What were those pieces of evidence? List them.

The initial piece of evidence was that it was in a subduction zone, meaning there must of been some sort of past activity, but that wasn’t enough. 

First nation told stories about the thunderbird that struck the land, shaking the earth, but scientist didn’t believe its credibility, for it was told verbally.

Found evidence of a forest that is now a marsh. This means, that before the ocean came and created the mud banks, there used to be a spruce forest, miles away from the salty water. Above that was a layer of sand that would have rushed in all at once, and the only logical explanation, was that there must have been a major earthquake that killed the forest and brought a layer of sand with it in tsunami form

Evidence of major tsunami in japan have happened before many times. Have evidence that the trees in a land by Cascadia died at the same time as the tsunami in japan, concluding the potential magnitude of the earthquake, that happened at the same time causing Japan to suffer.

2. Using the list of evidence above, explain why one of those pieces of evidence alone is not enough, but why together they make the documentary’s argument credible.

Just one source of evidence may not be conclusive, and easy to believe. By hearing one piece of information against it, for example that we have no written proof of this happening before, viewers might turn a blind eye. By knowing that there is multiple pieces of evidence, people will be able to see the bigger picture and have more potential to believe what may be happening. The proof of the forest which is now a muddy bay, shows us a visual representation of what happened to strongly support the theory.

3. This documentary comments on the destruction a seismic event could have on Vancouver. Describe what you learned from this documentary on how Vancouver could be impacted.

In Vancouver we have and continue to build buildings to our standards of earthquake safe. We don’t yet know what would happen to the many tall building that line the streets of Vancouver. Some conclude that they would sway in the pressure, and gradually lose there structure. Some may fall down killing thousands, or they may only be effected a little. Nothing like this has happened during this century here so we don’t know exactly what might happen. Older buildings that are un-reinforced in earthquake safety are almost guaranteed to collapse in the immense pressure from the earthquake. The earthquake would last around 5 minutes severely damaging everything that is hit by it. Land slides of hills would destroy everything below and there will be many fatalities. Next a tsunami will come into the area. Since Vancouver is tucked in behind Vancouver island, the tsunami is likely not to reach us but if it did, everyone in its path would suffer.