Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

For this essay I chose to write about Hort Park, it’s just down the street from me and it’s so beautiful. In this essay I’m going to talk about Hort Park’s landscape architecture.

Hort Park is an amazing and a beautiful park. This park is very big and has sectioned off areas. There are play areas for children, an allotment garden where people can rent flower beds and grow their own plants, a vegetable garden, a field for picnics, and greenhouses with huge sunflowers and other plants inside.

There are many shaded areas because Singapore can get extremely hot. These places have toilets and vending machines for the pedestrians to use, or you can rest under one of the many huge trees in the park; like the Jasmine tree which makes the air sweet smelling!

In this park I don’t feel like there is a focal point. I think that the architect wanted you to enjoy everything that is there, instead of focusing on one thing or plant.

Though Hort Park is an amazing place, I think that it could’ve been designed better; Hort Park is a huge plot of land, but most of it is walkways for pedestrians, which isn’t bad. But there isn’t much area for the plants. Sure there are plants all around but the sectioned areas for certain plants are very small. The playground for children and the picnic area take a lot of space; while the vegetable garden and the allotment garden don’t have much.

I love Hort Park, and this park has allowed me to get information for my previous essays. I love going there for walks with my Mom and Dad. I hope you have a good picture of Hort Park in your head now! Thanks for reading!

What is desalinization? Desalinization is when the salt, sand, everything polluting the water gets removed from sea water to become drinkable water for people. But, the process was long and expensive; until the Water Chip came along!

Desalinization is a crucial part to the human race, though you may not notice it. The Desalinization process gives fresh water to people living in water-stressed areas. But, this process is costly.  That’s where the Water Chip comes in!  The Water Chip creates a small electrical field that removes salts form seawater!  The Water Chip uses so little energy it can run on a store-bought battery! The less energy used, the more money saved (that should be the Water Chip’s slogan)!

Now with the Water Chip people in water-stressed areas can get loads of clean and fresh drinking water! A third of the plant’s inhabitants live in water-stressed areas. They have an abundant supply of sea water but not of drinking water; and they don’t have enough energy to create an abundant amount for everybody. Because of this millions of people are dying each year in these areas because they don’t have enough drinking water! Never fear the Water Chip is here! Saving lives one drop of water at a time (that’s a perfect slogan! Even better than the last!)!

As you can see, the Water Chip is revolutionary. This invention can save lives; and it will if it can spread to the water-stressed areas. Thanks for reading!

We say that we’re polluting the Earth; that we are the reasons that bad things are happening to the Earth; which isn’t completely true! Yes we’ve caused somethings that has harmed the environment, but we aren’t polluting the Earth as much as most people think.

The term “pollution” is now used to refer to any change that mankind has made in nature.[1] The term had originally meant to how harmful substances had been introduced into the environment; that then harm the creatures in that environment; now, however, any new industrial development is considered as “pollution”. This new “meaning” of pollution has led to the false implication that all industrial development involves hurting our environment.[2]

You commonly hear of these things that we do to hurt our environment:

1. Pollute the air and water.
2. Poison the fish.
3. Destroy rivers and lakes.
4. The onset of the new Ice Age
5. And the contrary onset global warming (does these two even make sense?!)
6. Pesticides, herbicides, and heavy metals are poisoning the food chain.
7. Chemical preservatives and radiation from atomic power plants, electric power lines, television sets, microwave ovens, and other electrical appliances, cause cancer and other detrimental health problems.[3]

As a result of this it’s natural for us to believe and wanting to stop these things which has; all this has led to an anti-industrialization and anti-development.

We have done some harmful things to the environment but not as much as environmentalists want you to think; and now that the term “pollution” seems to have a different meaning everything we do is considered as something bad. I hope you’ll think twice about saying that we’re polluting Earth after reading this. Thanks for reading!

[1] https://creation.com/creation-preservation-and-dominion-part-2  Retrieved Sep 17^th 2019

[2] https://creation.com/creation-preservation-and-dominion-part-2  Retrieved Sep 17^th 2019

[3] https://creation.com/creation-preservation-and-dominion-part-2  Retrieved Sep 17^th 2019

There are invasive plants out there, everywhere. They’re kind of like you little sister/brother who doesn’t respect your privacy or how long you stay sane; who takes and drains the life out of you and your friends. Okay, that was a bit exaggerated, but big brothers/sisters; you know what I’m talking about. That’s what invasive plants are.

Calla Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica) 

I couldn’t find any invasive plants in Singapore (where I live), but I did find an invasive plant in California, USA. This is the Calla Lily or the Zantedeschia aethiopica.  This invasive plant is a flower and is native to southern Africa; this plant is invasive in the coastal areas of California. It is listed as invasive by the California Invasive Plant Council.

Now, this plant looks very beautiful, but don’t be fooled, this plant is invasive and will suck the life out of the plants around it; it’s like a parasite.

I know this essay was short but there is really nothing more to invasive plants. Thanks for reading!

Meteorologists forecast the weather so we can know if it’s a good day to go to the beach or if we should stay home and drive our parents crazy! But, have you ever wondered how they did it? Can they see the future or do they have machines to do it?

Forecasting is the process of using past and present data to predict weather that will affect you, like hurricanes, tornadoes, or on a less extreme note, rain. Most meteorologists base their forecasts on past weather trends. For example, if it rained around the second week of May in Connecticut for the past 10 years then the meteorologist would predict rain around the second week of May.

Lots of meteorologists now have “fancy” “high-tech” gadgets to use to help them predict the weather like weather veins, anemometers, and weather balloons. Now these aren’t very high-tech, we’ve had them for ages. What’s really high-tech is the Doppler radar, like the WSR-88D:

The Doppler radar uses radio waves to help detect snow, storms, migrating birds, and dust! Meteorologists use satellites and infrared to also help in detecting storms and their estimated effects.

These are only a handful of what meteorologists use today to forecast the weather, I’m sure there is plenty more out there that is so high-tech even the scientists don’t fully understand how it works! 🙂 Thanks for reading!

Table salt and natural salt; what’s the difference? Doesn’t table salt come from natural salt? They do, but table salt is unhealthy compared to natural salt. Keep reading to know why.

My introduction paragraph told you that table salt is unhealthy compare to natural salt. Which was sort of a lie, sorry. Yes, table salt is processed, but it has the same amount of sodium (increases blood pressure) as natural salt in weight!

Natural salt can have all these health benefits:

• Carrying nutrients into and out of your cells
• Maintain and regulate blood pressure
• Increasing the glial cells in your brain, which are responsible for creative thinking and long-term planning.
• Helping your brain communicate with your muscles, so that you can move on demand via sodium-potassium ion exchange

Most table salt also has added iodine, an essential nutrient that helps maintain a healthy thyroid (a gland at the back of your neck that holds your hormones). I’m well aware that this is only one health benefit compared to natural salt, but it’s still a health benefit!

For this essay I had to do a lot of research, and have come to the conclusion that table salt and natural salt are equally healthy. If you don’t agree with me that’s fine. If you still think that table salt is unhealthy then cut down on it, that’s my only advice. Thanks for reading!

Tornadoes are dangerous, yet amazing, and, sometimes beautiful natural disaster. It was my favorite thing to learn this week. In this essay I’m going to tell you about tornadoes!

How do Tornadoes Form?

Tornadoes are formed when warm, moist airs, meets cool, dry air. When these two air masses meet they create tornadoes!

Types of Tornadoes

There are also different types of tornadoes. There is the Landspout Tornado and the Gustnado (kind of a cheesy name, right?).

The Landspout is generally not associated with severe storms. This tornado can develop underneath towering cumulus clouds; they tend to form when updrafts move over zones of wind. The Landspout is weak, but can still cause structural damage.

The Gustnado is a shallow vortex on the ground. The Gustnado typically last a few minutes or less and can extend a couple 100 feet off the ground. This tornado gets its name from its ability to form long gust fronts and its looks… a whirling dust cloud.

Fun Facts! 🙂

Tornadoes most distinguishable feature is its spinning funnel, but did you know that a tornado doesn’t need a funnel?

Sometimes a tornado will drift or start in the ocean. This is called a water spout. If the tornado is strong enough it can fling dead fish from itself.

All in all, tornadoes in short are just fast spinning clouds that cause mass destruction. Thanks for reading!