Something from - Moon and Sixpence

Cross this book by accident, but loved it.
Here is THE most famous quote:

"I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place. Accident has cast them amid certain surroundings, but they have always a nostalgia for a home they know not. They are strangers in their birthplace, and the leafy lanes they have known from childhood or the populous streets in which they have played, remain but a place of passage. They may spend their whole lives aliens among their kindred and remain aloof among the only scenes they have ever known. Perhaps it is this sense of strangeness that sends men far and wide in the search for something permanent, to which they may attach themselves. Perhaps some deep-rooted atavism urges the wanderer back to lands which his ancestors left in the dim beginnings of history. Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs. Here is the home he sought, and he will settle amid scenes that he has never seen before, among men he has never known, as though they were familiar to him from his birth. Here at last he finds rest."

Here I am ... ... but where am I?

Groundwater Model - 1 Parameters

K - Hydraulic conductivity (L/T)
Vertical K - (L/T), also = K/Anisotropic ratio
Conductance = K * A / L (L^2/T)
A - Flow cross-section area, L - Flow distance
Vcont (Vertical conductance) = Vertical K / L (1/T) (Also called leakance)
L - vertical distance
Effective leakance = 1/[sum(1/Vcont_i)], i = 1, n effective leakance of n layers
Transmissivity = K * aquifer thickness (Top - Bot) (L^2/T)

About the recent suicides in Foxconn

Having been reading a lot of news about the frequent suicides in FOXCONN, a Taiwanese Iphone/Ipad manufacturer. A total of 11 "jumps," 9 death, 2 injuries, this factory seems to be haunted.

So many theories and analyses exist about these death, some people called Foxconn a “Blood and Tear” factory; some say that Foxconn just has an extremely regulated management system - a semi-military system; some concluded that this is the unfortunate outcome of being at the end of the production chain; some blame it on the brittle nerve of the new generation of countryside workers, whose parents where the first generation workers; some say it is the unfairness in the society that brings no hope to the "poor second-generation;" some even say that the high death compensation (approximately 30K to 50K) to the family served as an incentive. There are more analyses, but the truth is still behind the scene. Maybe it is an outcome of all the above.

I am just feeling sad, not seeing the truth with my own eyes made me no better than another speculator, here I just want to provide a list of Facts

- the first known death of a Foxconn staff is Yonggang Sun, who was subject to internal investigation on lossing an Apple 4G sample phone, jumped out of a 12th floor window to prove his innocense, in September, 2009.

- Since 2010, in a short period of last 5 months, there were 11 suicides in Foxconn causing 9 death and 2 injuries. The youngest is only 19-year old, the oldest is 25-year old.

- For one iphone, Apple pays approximately 5 dollar to the manufacturer in China, For one ipad, Apple pays 11 dollars to the manufacturer in China

- Foxconn is a Taiwan company hires over 900-thousand employees. The owner Taiming Guo is currently the Richest man in Taiwan

- In Foxconn, a manufactory worker receives an average of $150 dollars per month, free lodging in a 8-person room, free food in the dining hall, and free laundry –better than the average conditions in many manufactories in China

- Foxconn worker works an average of 10~12 hours a day (8am ~5pm regular time, 6pm~8pm overtime), and also working over the weekend as overtime. The average pay for overtime is $1.1 per hour. You may choose to not work overtime, but few employee do, and they faces pressure from their supervisors.

- The investigation of the local labour department has concluded no-wrong-doing in Foxconn's conduct after the "10th jump"

Writing exercise - 1

My dear boss kept complaining about my technical writing skills. So here I am, back to this blog again. Perhaps I will take a couple of hours a day to write something again. It is another way of meditation, where I have to concentrate, produce cohesive thoughts, and then use proper language to express them.

Time, always time, it seems that there is plenty, but when I think of the tremendous task list I have, the time I have for developing other skills always seems so scarce. However, I can not really ignore the other developments because of this task list. There is a Chinese saying: "Read ten million books, and walk ten million miles," which is a requirement for the ancient intellectuals. I wish, in my limited life time, I can do something similar to it. Walk the miles, read the books, opening my eyes, and maybe finally opening the mind.

Can't write much now. I have been reading Russell lately (In Praise of Idleness), can not say I am completely agree with him, but he was such a good man.

Runoff Coefficient

Runoff Coefficient Table
Area Description Runoff Coefficient C
Business
Downtown 0.70-0.95
Neighborhood 0.50-0.70
Residential
Single-Family 0.30-0.50
Multiunits, detached 0.40-0.60
Multiunits, attached 0.60-0.75
Residential (suburban) 0.25-0.40
Apartment 0.50-0.70
Industrial
Light 0.50-0.80
Heavy 0.60-0.90
Parks, cemeteries 0.10-0.25
Playgrounds 0.20-0.35
Railroad yard 0.20-0.35
Unimproved 0.10-0.30
Pavement
Asphaltic and concrete 0.70-0.95
Brick 0.70-0.85
Roofs 0.75-0.95
Lawns, sandy soil
Flat, 2 percent 0.05-0.10
Average, 2-7 percent 0.10-0.15
Steep, 7 percent 0.15-0.20
Lawns, heavy soil
Flat, 2 percent 0.13-0.17
Average, 2-7 percent 0.18-0.22
Steep, 7 percent 0.25-0.35
http://www.ems-i.com/wmshelp/Hydrologic_Models/Models/Rational/Equation/Runoff_Coefficient_Table.htm

TMDL and NPDEs

TMDL is a calculation of maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that amount ...

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. Point sources are discrete conveyances such as pipes or man-made ditches. Individual homes that are connected to a municipal system, use a septic system, or do not have a surface discharge do not need an NPDES permit; however, industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharges go directly to surface waters. In most cases, the NPDES permit program is administered by authorized states

Hydraulic Head, Salt water related hydraulic head measures

Quote of the day: 学朋友长处，行圣贤语言

Hydraulic head, Fresh water head, Environmental head, Saltwater head, pressure head

Hydraulic head (total head) = pressure head + elevation head = constant for a static water column.

Equivalent Fresh water head in saltwater problems is similar to hydraulic head. It determines the flow of water.

Environmental head (Modflow-surface, HGL): computed from the equivalent freshwater head at any location, by subtracting the effects of density from that point up to the surface. Note that this an integrated process, concentration may varying from that point up to the surface. In the real world, this can be water level measured from an open hole well (opens from the point to the surface)

Saltwater head, native head (SEAWAT, USGS): computed from the equivalent freshwater head at any location, by subtracting the effects of density from that point only. Note that this is not an integrated process, concentration is a point value. In the real world, this can be water level measured from an well with a short screen opening.

Previous version of SEAWAT, input and output were expressed in terms of equivalent freshwater head.
SEAWAT-2000 uses equivalent freshwater head as the dependent variable in thevariable-density ground-water flow equation. But input and output are expressed in terms of the head of the native aquifer water (saltwater head)

So, for a given point, usually Equvalent Fresh water head >= Saltwater Head, native head (SEAWAT) >= Environmental Head (Modflow-surfact)