I am so happy to be back :-)

[sweetalice]

[HR][/HR]When you see the picture, you would know where I was. I believe some of you have been there, but I still hope this picture could bring you some good memories.
No words or works of art, no films or photos, for the first view with my own eyes - the Grand Canyon, I was astonished how small a human being in the vastness of the nature!
Grand Canyon founded in 1919. It is located completely in the State of Arizona with 1900 square miles. Unmatched elsewhere on the planet, the master piece shaped by erosion and sculpted by the tool of immense power- A River(continued).

YouTube of the helicopter experience.

YouTube of the helicopter view 2

 

[sweetalice]

Miss you a lot!

 

[sweetalice]

I was overwhelmed while standing in the bottom of the Grand Canyon deep in the earth
about 2 billion years ago, feeling like I was embraced by a mother that her daughter came home.

The U.S.Grand Canyon is not the deepest or the widest canyon in the world, but the layers of rocks expose how the Colorado river cut the Grand Canyon uncovering the visible geological history of North America. From the top to bottom, you can scam the rocky mountains from millions of years old to 2 billion year old, and its color varies reflecting upon the changing of sun light.

These rocks and cliffs are still changing. As long as the sources of erosion grind endlessly, the Grand Canyon is never finished. This canyon of God's creation and mother nature's labor will always be a wonder of the world. (end)

YouTube of boat view.

 

[sweetalice]

I am available today. ~[SUB]_[/SUB]~

The first looking at the iPad Air. A better name than "New iPad".
What should we know about iPad Air?
1 lbs, was 1.4 lbs; 7.5 mm, was 9.0 mm; processor speed: A6 (2 time faster than before);
Display resolution is 72 times better than before; Battery lasts 10 hours; Color: black, white, gray.


Cheers!

 

[sweetalice]

Standing At the Eagle Point.

The Grand Canyon can be accessed from its west rim (which I took by heli & raft), south rim by foot and north rim by foot or mull riding, or even from Papillon Airport all the way to the west rim.
I was sad because it was too short. It feels sad because of its vastness, its desolation. It is a beautiful sadness - a kind of feeling that will always stay in my memory gives me peace and power.

I am available today and tomorrow (Saturday).

 

[sweetalice]

I am available whole week. ( from today Oct 28, 2013- Nov 2nd, 2013)
12 pm - 8 pm every day.

 

[sweetalice]

If you have watched the movie "Transformer" or "Entrapment" or if you have not,
which does not matter. But you know it.

Hoover Dam, one of America's modern civil engineering wonders, completed in 1935. In 1930 President Herbert Hoover(1929-1933) for whom the dam was named signed a bill to begin this historic, vast and most difficult construction located at Black Canyon, where Nevada and Arizona meet, the upstream of Colorado River.

Today more that 70 years later, the Hoover Dam is no longer the record breaking it once was. The lessons learned building Hoover has created or are creating more super dams, dams that are wider, taller and even more powerful. Even so the Hoover Dam can still be the most famous, most iconic and the greatest dam every built in the world. Why? (continued)

 

[sweetalice]

Trick or treat?
Tricks do work, but treats are sweet.
I like them all.

Happy Halloween!

 

[sweetalice]

The background of Hoover Dam

1). In October 1929, the US steadily rising stock market rapidly plummeted which kicked off the Great Depression. The reason for that was the lack of market demand, especially demand for steel and cement. Lots of related companies closed. Then it affected mining, machinery and other businesses, in a domino effect, no industry could have a way out of it. Thousands of workers lost their jobs. The then sitting president Herbert Hoover was blamed for doing nothing to stop the depression. The idea of constructing many bigger public facilities was the better choice to put people back to work. The Hoover Dam project was one of them providing opportunities in depression era. So in 1930 Mr. Hoover signed the reclamation bill of building this dam.

2) Colorado River, running through the America southwest, is one of the world's most powerful and unpredictable rivers. Every spring it would break its banks causing massive floods destroying farmlands, homes and cities. In summer the river dried itself to a small creek that could not provide irrigating. The settlers suffered, some gave up and went elsewhere, some stayed to fight. The river had to be regulated and controlled in year-round flow. No more floods, no more droughts. (continued)

 

[sweetalice]

Hoover Dam mainly has three purposes: flood control, water storage, hydro power generation which pays for the operation of the dam. It is a concrete gravity-arch design. First, gravity makes dam very bottom heavy and stable and it forces the dam into the ground. Then the upper part which is most visible is the nice graceful arch shape that is very efficient to hold back the pressure of the water building up behind it.
Construction
1) River diversion. It took 2 years drilling, blasting and mucking through the canyon walls to create 4 tunnels through which the river was diverse away and to dry the river bed where the dam would be built. 2) Building the dam. It took 2 years pouring concrete. The dam contains 3.4 million m3 of concrete weighing 6.6 million tonnes, rising 221 meters high, extending 337 meters long. 3) Lake Mead, the reservoir. it took 6 years to full. 4) U shape power plant located on the sides of canyon walls at the bottom of dam. It uses the water fall from the Lake to spin the turbine wheels connected to the generators to produce electricity, and then the water is released into the down stream of the river.
Working condition
Black Canyon, an 800 feet deep gorge carved out by the Colorado River, lay in the heart of the Mojave Desert, a perfect place for a dam but not a place for human to survive. Workers worked under all conditions all season of the year. Because of the pushing schedule, workers had to work 7 days a week, rain or shine, day and night. They only got 2 days off a year. Christmas and the forth of the September, all were unpaid. The average wage was about 62.5 cents an hour which was $1825.00 per year. It does not seem like much until you compare it with how much other people were making at that time. Steel work: $423. Bus driver: $1373. Coal miner:$732. Civil service employee:$1284. Engineer: $2520
With the Hoover Dam complete the Colorado River was tamed and the desert transformed into into fertile productive farmland. a productive farmland. It provides clean hydro power to American southwest to enable the boom of Las Vegas, LA and the west part of California. The total cost of construction was about 125 million. The builders of the dam assured that Hoover Dam could survive almost indefinitely. Hoover Dam is stronger than it was complete, despite of the environmental controversy.
(There are lots of stories behind Hoover Dam which I can not present here, you can do some research if you are interested in it. Thanks for sharing)