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Hello. My name is Jhemana Fogg. Pronounced "Juh-mah-nuh". I was born and raised in North Carolina, and I have moved to Florida back in June 2020 during my senior year in highschool. Back in NC, I moved to different places, but the places where I had moved to were close together so I still had close connections with my friends. I wish I could move back to North Carolina since that's where I'm most familiar with and all of my friends are there. I finished highschool in 2021, and I am currently a freshman (1st year) in MDC. Some personal things about me is that I LOVE fast foods. I enjoy eating chinese food and McDonald's™. My hobbies tend to change since I don't focus on one thing for a long period of time, I usually switch to something else and then I might go back to that particular "hobby." I am most proud of being a Virgo. That's my zodiac sign and I do a lot of researching about it, so you could say that that is one of my hobbies I do like to do. I would say that my greatest strength is my will to be helpful to anybody. I will go out of my way to help somebody with an assignment or just to be a listening ear to someone. My weakness is finding the motivation to do work. This results in me struggling to turn in work on time and questioning if my education is really worth saving.

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The research tool that I knew about beforehand but still good to listen to again was citing books, articles, and/ or journals in MLA format. That is one of the most used formats when researching topics and using citations. The MDC library luckily provides a citation link just below the article, which is very convenient for me, as I don’t need to use a different link and cite it myself. This is also convenient since college is all about anti-plagiarism, so its guaranteed that the resources and formats are legit. What was also given to us was that every work cited link needs to be formatted with a hanging indent and no added spaces in between.

The topic that I have selected to research was “waste management.” This topic was used by Professor Isabel Duque. I selected this topic for the main reason being that there are different types of wastes that fall into this category, so there were a number of options that I could choose from. To get a better understanding of what the topic is about, I can define, list the causes of waste management, who/how does it affect the environment that I am living in, and find any possible outlooks or solutions for it.

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Boston, Elise. “Waste Management Announces Partnership with Miami-Dade ...” WASTE MANAGEMENT ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH MIAMI-DADE COUNTY TO PROCESS SINGLE-STREAM RECYCLING, 31 July 2008, https://www.wm.com/about/press-room/pr2008/20080731_WM_Announces_Partnership_with_Miami-Dade_County_to_Process_Single-Stream_Recycling.pdf.

This first article introduces new recycling programs that are being built here in South Florida. Recycling is quite hard to maintain without proper resources to put waste in. To solve this problem, South Florida is doing a partnership with Waste Management, Inc (WMI), to start the first and one of the largest single stream recycling programs. This facility contains advanced technology to mark sorting out and recycling much more convenient, not only in the facility, but also in communities for it to be more manageable.

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Community News Releases, and Kendall Gazette. “What They Really Do: Miami-Dade Dept. of Solid Waste Management.” Miami's Community News, 24 Jan. 2021, https://communitynewspapers.com/kendallgazette/what-they-really-do-miami-dade-dept-of-solid-waste-management/.

My next article discusses one of the ways in dealing with waste. There are facilities being created for this reason, to recycle and manage the waste that is accumulating in South Florida. A waste-management facility called the Department of Solid Waste Management (DSWM), directed by Michael Fernandez, not only collect waste, but manage the disposal of waste and converts it into electrical energy.

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Olear , Greg. “Where Does It All Go? - Garbage in, Garbage Out.” CooperatorNews South Florida, The Condo, HOA & Co-Op Monthly, Sept. 2012, https://sofl.cooperatornews.com/article/garbage-in-garbage-out.

My third and final article answers the revolving question: where does the number of waste go thrown away by Floridians? The problem with the accumulation of waste is that it is not thoroughly supervised to where it would wind up. Most residents would think that if it is out of side then it is out of mind and not think anything of it. There are a number of ways we can deal with the available resources for waste and recyclables.

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For the concept of SP2, it was to pick which tool or idea that I already knew, and I chose how to do MLA format. I could already tell that it was going to be an easy activity to do. I have learned how to cite my work and set up an empty document in MLA format since the 8th grade, so it was going to be a breeze for me. My first thought about the activity was that it was the easiest activity that I will do since researching outside information was not required. I expected the concept to be challenging since the only way to complete the activity was to attend a session that the questions were based on. So, I was quite surprised and relieved when it was simpler to understand and complete. The only concern that I had was how many words were required in order to complete it.

Completing CAS1 was definitely a learning experience for me. I have gotten to know a lot more about how plastic waste and how it is affecting the environment, while getting intel on who and where it is affecting. I do not remember key details when completing this activity, only remembering some information that I have viewed. What I do remember is what the United States do with the excess waste. To sum it up, the United States has been sending plastic waste to China, polluting their country. China got sick of all the waste and issued a Waste Bann. Having no where else to dump the waste, they disposed plastic waste into low class, third world countries. I thought that was a trifling act to do, as these countries did not think of how it will affect the people who live in those areas. I know they could have done something better and more effective to recycle and sustain the growing number of wastes.

Doing SP3 was also an educational experience. By completing the activity, I managed provide 3 summaries from articles that relate to my following concept, “How Does the South of Florida Handle their Waste?” Mentioned in those summaries are explaining what different communities in South Florida are doing to maintain what waste is left in the environment. When I first started researching about South Florida’s waste control, I did not seem like they were doing much. However, I see that South Floridians are actually trying to build facilities for waste to go in. the percentage of waste in Florida is high, but it is slowly going down as the numbers rise in recycling.

Completing CAS1 has given me a new view on the topic of plastic waste. It was never new to me of how plastic in water or in any other environment was dangerous. One of which is that it is more deadly that I had given it credit for. Not only does plastic particles that, when ingested by sea creatures, can cause health problems within the animal and even death, humans consume some of those creatures that have digested plastic, which will then lead them to develop health problems as well. The accumulation of plastic waste in regions of Southeast Asia is only getting worse, even though there are facilities that are trying their best to get a grip of this situation, it is still not enough to make an imapct. This is a big eye opener that plastic waste is a serious problem that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. Keeping these health issues at hand, I try to be more cautious of where and how I dispose of waste.

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1st video: "The Story of Plastic (Documentary Flim)" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/the-story-of-plastic-documentary-film/

As the anchorman addresses the crisis of plastic formation continuing to accumulate in the environment, this short documentary gives information about how much plastic is affecting our lives and making a turn for the worst if people don't start making so drastic changes. It's no secret that there is an abundance of plastic not only in the ocean, but are now forming on land, with beaches being polluted with washed up plastic from the ocean. Approximately 14% of plastic is getting recycled, with a mere 2% of the plastic being recycled successfully. With another 14% of plastic being incinerated, or burned, will only cause health problems as plastic releases harmful toxins when burned.

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If you are looking for simple inspiration or home storage ideas, then you have come to the right place. Here you will find organisational tips to help you make the most of your living space and ideas on how to declutter your home to create a calm and tidy environment.

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"The Story of Plastic" Where Your Recycled Plastic Ends Up

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"The Story of Plastic" Where Your Recycled Plastic Ends Up

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2nd video: "The Story of Plastic: "Where Your Recycled Plastic Ends Up" https://www.storyofstuff.org/movies/plastic/where-your-recycled-plastic-ends-up/

There are companies that are trying to recycle all the unwanted plastic. There is still conflict on what to do with the recyclable things that companies claim are "recyclable," as people think that the scraps of plastic will be gone, out of sight out of mind. This type of thinking is putting more work and pressure on individuals who are doing their best to maintain healthy level of recycling. It's an overall eye-opener that the United States cannot deal with so much scrap plastic, that they ship it over to China, so it can be there problem now. This only creates bigger problems. China basically was like "You know what, we're tired of dealing with this mess. We're done here." Soon, they created a waste ban to prevent any plastic from further polluting their environment. Plastic then starts to accumulate in different areas of Southeast Asia.

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I have learned just how much time and money is invested to obtain resources and machines to make efuel. Efuel, also called synthetic fuel, go through a long process in order to make sure that no harmful substances, like carbon dioxide (CO2) are emitted when put in use. This process is known as electrolysis, which is when electrical currents are passed through substances in order for chemical change to take place. Synthetic fuels consist of 2 main ingredients: water (H2O) and carbon. Carbon molecules are split into one oxygen atom and carbon monoxide (CO). Whereas water molecules are split into one hydrogen atom and one oxygen atom. They collect carbon from the environment, like the atmosphere and biomass, and enter it into a machine, called the Fischer-Tropsch-Reactor. In the machine, both gases breakdown and link into long chains of carbohydrates. While it is great to see so much work put into the making of synthetic fuels, the price for this is still expensive, as researchers are still trying to work on obtaining electricity supplies to run these operations and have access to renewable energy. There are places that have a large quantity of renewable energy around the world known as “Sun belts.” While these places can provide more than enough energy to process synthetic fuels, a lot of energy is put in to do so. Lots of energy is lost in the electrolysis process and throughout the vehicle before about 8% of energy reaches the wheel. BUT the continued use of those energy will eventually accumulate to where around 70% of the energy reaches the wheel.

Work Cited

The Truth About Carbon Neutral Fuels -

Edited by Nils, Malte, et al. Reinecke, Rohwer-Kahlmann, et al., The Truth about Carbon Neutral Fuels, YouTube, 1 Apr. 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDyh-H7AAcg.

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“Self-assembling robots and the potential of artificial evolution” by Emma Hart

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“Self-assembling robots and the potential of artificial evolution” by Emma Hart

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This video started off grabbing my attention when Emma Hart revealed that her collaborates were working on robots to adapt in geographically unknown places. There, they were programmed to design and create robots to adapt and work in those areas. The whole presentation was innovative as it gives us a clarification that technology is advancing so much, that there is a great possibility that our future will be filled with artificial bodies that are able to aid us humans in exploring places and accomplishing great feats in scientific exploration that we humans are limited in doing.
One of the few things that I have learned when viewing this TED talk was when Hart gave an example of how a plant has developed disk-shaped leaves to lure bats towards them by "amplifying their signals" in order for their flowers to pollinate*. Here are also some words that are interesting.
- Biomimicry* a technology which simply copies what is observed in nature.
- Artificial Evolution* algorithms operating inside a computer.