Sunday, January 19, 2014

 Hurricane is one of the hazards that is accommodated by wind and sometimes rain. It is mostly destructive due to the strong winds and strong rains. It is also called typhoons in the western Pacific or cyclones in Australia and Indian Ocean. It forms over tropical oceans. It also has a low pressure. It moves counter-clockwise in northern hemisphere. 
Volcanoes are mountains or hills, that have a crater or vent through which lava, rock fragments, hot vapor, and gas are being or have been erupted from the earth`s crust. The eruption might take through a day or it may last up to years. It is also one of the most disastrous natural calamities on earth. Mount Pinatubo was one of the most destructive calamity in the 20th century. It affected the great amount of area in the Southeast Asia.
There are differences between the two natural disasters. Here are the differences:

Volcanic Eruption
Typhoons and Hurrican
Magnitude
No single feature to measure how big the volcano is.
There is the intensity to measure hyrricane on the saffir-simpson scale. This is to measure the wind speed and air pressure in the scale of 1-5.
Duration
It can last from less than a day to years.
It can last till days and up to years.
Spatial Distribution
Volcanoes can be found in continental settings or oceanic settings. This means that volcanoes can be found in either land or underwater.  

Severe Cyclonic Storm: North Indian Ocean 

Tropical Cyclone: South and Southwest Indian Ocean 

Severe Tropical Cyclone: Southwest Pacific Ocean and Southeast Indian Ocean 

The more familiar term, "hurricane", is used in the Atlantic Ocean and the eastern Pacific Ocean


Predictability
Volcanic eruptions are very difficult to predict, however, it is said that the beginning of a volcanic eruption is easier to predict than to predict the end of a volcanic eruption.

Hurricanes are very erratic; prediction is difficult

Regularity and Frequency
Shown in the Volcanic Explosivity Index table, non-explosive to gentle explosions occur frequently, and daily, compared to very big volcanic eruptions with a plume height of >25 km, which happen about once every 10,000 years. 

See the table below

Storm Frequency
Tropical storms and Typhoons by month,
for the period 1959–2011 (Northwest Pacific)
Month
Count
Average
Jan
25
0.5
Feb
12
0.2
Mar
23
0.4
Apr
34
0.6
May
63
1.2
Jun
90
1.7
Jul
205
3.9
Aug
296
5.6
Sep
262
4.9
Oct
210
4.0
Nov
133
2.5
Dec
66
1.2
Annual
1419
26.8

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Explain the characteristics and spatial distribution of the following hazards using at least two specific examples. [10 marks]

             Hurricane is one of the hazards that is accommodated by wind and sometimes rain. It is mostly destructive due to the strong winds. It is also called typhoons in the western Pacific or cyclones in Australia and Indian Ocean. It forms over tropical oceans. It also has a low pressure. It moves counter-clockwise in northern hemisphere. The speed at which the wind travels is 120 km/h but it can also rich about to 350 km/h. The diameter of hurricanes could differ it can be as small as 100 km and as gigantic as 1500km.

             Hurricanes are hard to detect because they are erratic. The usage of flights into hurricane, satellite images, on-ground instruments packages, and computer models. The destruction could be lethal due to heavy rain falls and 120 km/h. In the eye of wall the amount of rain fall is 10m/day. On the other locations it rains up to 10 in./day. 

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Why is it that the rich get richer and the poor stay poor?

          The rich stay rich and poor stay poor. That is the current Meta for 21st century. The rich stay rich because the 1% of rich people owns the 50% of the wealth of the total population. Rich people own basically own everything. They own the corporations, property, investments, capital and everything that would be helpful in developing nations. In America, top 1 percent controls 83 percent of US stock. This is very scary. So the other 17 percent of the stocks are owned by 99 percent of people in United States. This is one reason why the rich stay rich and poor stay poor.
             The poor stay poor because as of 2007, the bottom 80 percent of American households held about 7 percent of the liquid financial assets. The data comes from Dailyfinance article and it is irrational. How can 80 percent own 7 percent? That is kind of unrealistic. So the poor stay because they cannot own anything. Everything belongs to the rich.


http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/21/are-the-rich-getting-richer-the-data-says-yes/
http://financemymoney.com/who-controls-wealth-in-america-top-1-percent-own-83-percent-of-stocks-housing-debt-eating-personal-income/

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

1. Why have some countries donated more in aid to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan than others?

The countries that have donated more to the victims in the country, are more likely those who have allied or are friends with the Philippines. Other countries who were helped by the Philippines could have helped them back. 

2. How does the aid being sent to victims of Typhoon Haiyan represent the following:

altruism: People could just love helping others. Altruism is when someone being selflessness. They want the welfare of others. It is very traditional and religious thing to do. So, those countries that have sent aid to the Philippines could just feel sorry for them and could help them. Countries like Vatican could helped the Philippines because Philippines is a Christian nation. 

geopolitics: Those countries that aided Philippines like China who have donated $100,000 out of 7 trillion GDP. Unlike other countries like US and UK, who have donated like millions of dollars as their trillion and billion dollar. China is currently having issues with the Philippines over South China sea. So, they could have donated less due to this the geopolitical conflicts.

Neo-colonialism: Neo-colonialism is basically having indirect control over countries. It is making the LEDCs to depend on MEDCs. Country like US could have thoughts like it could happen to be a colonialism. Since US had colonized the Philippines in 1989 to 1946. The colonization was very long and US is maybe trying to re-start their colonialism. 

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Super Typhoon Haiyan and Its Effect

How does the devastation brought from Typhoon Haiyan make you feel?
- The devastation of the super typhoon has not affected me greatly. Just heavy rain and strong wind was the most devastation happened. But, the people who were more affected than just strong wind and heavy rain, I feel so sad for them. They do not even have enough money to buy food for three meals a day. And they get affected so heavily by rain and storm surges that destroyed their houses, families, and lives. Though I am not greatly affected by the typhoon, I still feel so bad for their loss.