https://www.kpkong.com PK Tue, 25 Feb 2020 21:11:22 +0000 https://www.kpkong.com en http://www.kpkong.com/Excerpts Tue, 25 Feb 2020 21:11:22 +0000 PK 357387 Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV PersonalArchives Home Remedies - Xuan Juliana WangBlack Skin White Masks - Frantz FanonA Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton MalkielThe Souls of the Black Folk - WEB Du BoisPilgrim at Tinker Creek - Annie DillardCurrency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis - James RickardsAmerican Wolf - Nate BlakesleeThe Seven Good Years - Etkar KeretThe Third Plate - Dan Barber Woman Warrior - Maxine Long Kingston Yellow - Frank WuThe Souls of Black Folk - W.E.B. DuBois“Progress in human affairs is more often a pull than a push, surging forward of the exceptional man, and the lifting of his duller brethren slowly and painfully to his vantage ground” Via Negativa ‘We don’t do it because we know what it means... we do it to find out what it means’ On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong The eye, alone in its socket, doesn’t even know there’s another one, just like it, an inch away, just as hungry, as empty. No object is in a constant relationship with pleasure, wrote Barthes. For the writer, however, it is the mother tongue. But what if the mother tongue is stunted? What if that tongue is not only the symbol of a void, but is itself a void, what is the tongue is cut out? Can one take pleasure in loss without losing oneself entirely? The Vietnameses I own is the one you gave me, the one whose diction and syntax reach only the second-grade level. It’s true that,&nbsp; in Vietnamese, we rarely say I love you, and when we do, it is almost always in English. Care and love, for us, are pronounced clearest through service: plucking white hairs, pressing yourself on your son to absorb a plane’s turbulence and, therefore, his fear. Or now-- as Lan called to me, “Little Dog, get over here and help me help your mother.” And we knelt on each other each side of you, rolling out the hardened cords in your upper arms, then down to your wrists, your fingers. For a moment almost too brief to matter, this made sense-- that three people on the floor, connected to each other by touch, made something like the word family.&nbsp; Free Food for Millionaires - Lee Min Jin Everything with Koreans, Casey thought, was about avoiding shame. She was one of those Korean girls who thought she was as good as white and that the world was fair, and it tickled him to see her reduced to this position-- to have to ask a member of the immigrant tribe for a patch of floor to sleep on and to ask another member to pull a favor on her behalf. Where are all of your little white friends now? he wanted to say th her. She was acting like a rich white girl, and Ted knew that life did not let you lie to yourself for very long. In that way, you had to admit, life was quite fair.&nbsp; ...how quickly you got your food revealed the likelyhood of achieving your goals.“Why do atheists constantly harp on Christian hypocrisies? Why don’t you fucking dodgers just get your own set of beliefs to critique yourselves against? I never said I was a good person or a good Christian...”And by the time you’re my age-- you’ll see that for every day and every last moment spent, you were making a choice. And you’ll see that the time you had, that you were given, was wasted. It’s gone. Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo...failsafe Birkies in summer...because it’s such a privilege to not die prematurely,...his one domestic duty was to bring home the meat for Sunday lunch from the butcher’s - a suburban kind of hunter-gatherer thingshe then regretted never telling him she loved him, he was her father, a good man, of course she loved him, she knew that now he was gone,, he was a partiarch but her mother was right when she said, he’s of his time an culture, Amma...by the way, I’m humanitarian, which is on a much higher plane than feminism do you even know what that is?English people like to waste their money in expensive supermarkets on overpriced goods in fancy packaging, and then dare to complain in the bus queue about the economy going down the drain while giving me filthy looks, when it is them, yes, them who are going down the drain with their susceptibility to fancy advertising that causes a slump in their personal finances as a consequenceGreat Aunt Myrtle drilled it into me to be a person with knowledge, not just opinionsShirley had long felt angry on behalf of her brothers who’d also been harassed by the police since they wre young&nbsp; &nbsp; all black men had to learn to handle it, all black men had to be toughCarole, her first and greatest achievement, never reported back as instructed, not once, not so much as a phone call or a thank you postcard since the day she left school over a decade ago now&nbsp; &nbsp; it makes Shirley feel&nbsp; &nbsp; well, used Penelope came to the conclusion that marrying someone whwen you’re in love with them was perhaps not such a good idea, better to wait ten years (ten, twenty, thirty, never?) to see if you’re compatible after the passion has subsided and reality set inwhom were Asian &nbsp; &nbsp; well-educated and well-spoken&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; so hardly Asian at allthis was exactly what she needed&nbsp; &nbsp; solitude&nbsp; &nbsp; to register what she was feeling&nbsp; &nbsp; forcing herself to become deaf to all sound except her own&nbsp; &nbsp; it felt like meditation as she concentrated on the concertina of her own breathing presents are piled underneath the tree, people giving each other things for the sake of it, nothing to do with religion, Christmas should be called Greedymas&nbsp; &nbsp; a time when people overeat and over-indulge in the name of Jesus Christ Sylvester says they sold their lefty student principles, if they ever had them, as soon as they left university and accepted an overpaid starter-salary in a morally objectionable corporate job offering lucrative career prospects and inflated annual bonuses which soon turned them into filthy-rich Tories with a hatred of the social welfare infrastructures they’re actively not contributing to through tax avoidance and evason while hypocritically scorning the underclasses as the scourge of society who sponge off the state when they’re the ones who are the biggest scroungeres on society with no sense of community responsibility other than a very self-aggrandizing, tax-deductible form of fashionable charity they like to call philanthropism! feminism needs tectonic plates to shift, not a trendy make-over this is not about feeling something or about speaking words this is about being together. Silent Spring - Rachel Carson Meanwhile as we pour our millions into research and invest all our hopes in vast programs to find cures for established cases of cancer, we are neglecting the golden opportunity to prevent, even while we seek to cure. The truth, seldom mentioned but there for anyone to see, ist hat nature is not so easilly molded... The balance of nature is not a status quo; it is fluid, ever shifting in a constant state of adustment. Man, too is part o fthis balance. Sometimes the balance is in his favor; sometimes-- and all too often though his own activities-- it is shifted to his disadvantage. Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV PersonalArchives Home Remedies - Xuan Juliana WangBlack Skin White Masks - Frantz FanonA Random Walk... http://www.kpkong.com/OSM Wed, 19 Feb 2020 18:23:22 +0000 PK 356889 Kyeong Pil Kong’s OSM24 Poster addendum&nbsp;&nbsp;Particle trajectories methodology:&nbsp;Particle trajectories were calculated by integration using an explicit Runge-Kutta formula on the total geostrophic velocity field from gridded satellite altimetry (distributed by the Copernicus Marine Service at 0.25° horizontal resolution)2022 Satellite Chl-a map (source:&nbsp;https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00281) <img width="907" height="469" width_o="907" height_o="469" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/da1cc217312b4cf4ffb00074dce9b483214129a4190b9c55643f3c3e4a01123f/202203_202208_Chl.gif" data-mid="1348405" border="0" /> 2022 soluble Fe (wet + dry) deposition &nbsp;<img width="1200" height="600" width_o="1200" height_o="600" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/39dfe1d3a7b8e498adb07331dffa8ec944748ae44e6697918d8e076296c97230/fesolall_animation.gif" data-mid="1348406" border="0" data-scale="78"/> Acknowledgements:&nbsp; SCOPE PARAGON 2 Cruise (August 2022): Captain and Crew of KM 2212 Chief Scientists: Matt Church, Angel White SCOPE Ops team: Tim Burrell, Ryan Tabata, Brandon BrenesTrace Metal team: Lauren Manck, Miranda Seixas, Jingxuan Li, Matt Church John Lab at USC:&nbsp; Xiaopeng Bian, Rachel KellyPhil’s website homepage Kyeong Pil Kong’s OSM24 Poster addendum&nbsp;&nbsp;Particle trajectories methodology:&nbsp;Particle trajectories were calculated by integration using an explicit... http://www.kpkong.com/Archives Mon, 13 Jan 2020 17:29:54 +0000 PK 353103 Home &nbsp;Research Interests&nbsp;  Projects &nbsp; CV &nbsp; Personal  Archives Archives Reading List 2022 (PK’s pick of the year in bold)The Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green [currently listening] Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia OwensTalking to Strangers - Malcolm GladwellThe Story of Earth - Robert HazenThe Hidden Life of Trees - Peter WollebenThis is Your Mind on Plants - Michael PollanSuper Sad True Love Story - Gary SteyngartThe Overstory - Richard PowersOmnivore’s Dillemma - Michael Pollan Reading List 2021 (PK’s pick of the year in bold) Via Negativa - Daniel HornsbyA Promised Land -&nbsp; Barack ObamaDavid and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell Flash Boys - Michael LewisThe Souls of Black Folk - W.E.B. Dubois Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner My Year Abroad - Chang Rae LeeSeverence - Ling MaUnderland - Robert MacfarlaneThe Third Plate - Dan Barber The Genius of Birds - Jennifer AckermanBraiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer Fermentation Diaries April 2022Over the past year the SCOBY hasn’t produced strong batches, and I attribute it to the reduced amount of sugar that I’ve been adding to feed the colony. I am now adding ~500 g of sugar for 2.5 gallon batches. Favorite flavor of 2022: mango date December 2020 The kombucha colony has been thriving since travelling across the states to the west coast. The DC bacteria+yeasts seem to be getting along with the LA natives fairly well. Fermentation duration has been a fair bit longer than normal due to the colder temperatures (perhaps decreased humidity plays a role as well...?) going from 2 weeks to maturity to approximately 3-4 weeks. Enjoying the mellower notes of the booch as a result. March 2020 Instead of putting whole fruits as a source of sugar for my 2F, I have recently began to pulverize the fruits. While I miss chewing the soggy booch fruit, I now do not have to deal with a mess during bottling and the final product tastes just as good. February 2020 Apple flavored booch for the first time. Used blended fuji? apples with honey for an extra sugar boost. May continue to blend up fruits for easier consumption. January 2020Two years into brewing kombucha, the flavor of tea continues to change over time as I continue to tinker with the sugar and tea content. I prefer brewing with green tea rather than black tea as I could taste the added fruit flavors more clearly. Favorite flavors of 2019: Asian Pear [current batch]PersimmonGolden dragonfruitI enjoyed pickling a wide variety of vegetables this year. Favorites have been romanesco, a variety of radishes (was very very pungent), onion, garlic to name a few. I hope to experiment with brine content in the upcoming year (been consistently using 2.5%) and discuss my results in future entries. Reading List 2020How to Change Your Mind - Michael Pollan &nbsp;Frankly in Love - David Yoon Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo American Catch: The Fight for our Local Seafood - Paul GreenbergFree Food for Millionaires - Min Jin LeeOn Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino Exhalation: Stories - Ted ChiangSalt - Mark KurlanskyPizza Girl -Jean Kyoung FrazierHer Body and Other Parties - Carmen Maria Machado Via Negativa - Daniel Hornsby <img width="604" height="788" width_o="604" height_o="788" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/fdfd6a7c1520ac92c0b2471fc6e47dd498f24350c5f28c46ff99fec5d6caf319/Screen-Shot-2020-01-07-at-2.18.06-PM.png" data-mid="871450" border="0" data-scale="40"/> 1F hard at work Photodiary January 2020 <img width="200" height="200" width_o="200" height_o="200" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/82cebe195581c91f2a76100cf97a966b94e781071858fdf6b33ae2e578dde0f0/hcherry.png" data-mid="1146145" border="0" /> Celebrating magnolia blooms with H in DC (4/2020 Home &nbsp;Research Interests&nbsp;  Projects &nbsp; CV &nbsp; Personal  Archives Archives Reading List 2022 (PK’s pick of... http://www.kpkong.com/Personal Mon, 06 Jan 2020 22:56:45 +0000 PK 352321 Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV&nbsp; Personal&nbsp;&nbsp;Archives Personal Interests Reading/Listening List:&nbsp; see Phil’s goodreads Fermentation DiariesFebruary 2025 Kombucha SCOBY still going strong... 8 years in. &nbsp; <img width="723" height="872" width_o="723" height_o="872" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/dd37670737341acfdef279b161d7f22a0282237a4a1c5d7241ea970c1a8bc26e/Screenshot-2025-02-18-at-01.38.49.png" data-mid="1396702" border="0" data-scale="62"/> Photodiary<img width="4032" height="3024" width_o="4032" height_o="3024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/4d1d5e425365c9b7ef2462d2785310992583777a138f019af7f5a8ecc7f26e2a/IMG_3451.JPG" data-mid="1396699" border="0" data-scale="97"/>Phil’s garden plot at Solano Canyon <img width="600" height="800" width_o="600" height_o="800" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/8e277cf3e080982cf1d63176c3ee97db1b614425e86651f72c0e96f3661cb1de/PHOTO-2023-01-10-21-08-26.png" data-mid="1255506" border="0" /> Making kombucha on the GP17-OCE cruise harnessing pelagic bacteria and yeast <img width="2100" height="1500" width_o="2100" height_o="1500" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/130f3376fb503c93f638689ec29fd89bb907cb753cfa2822dad5f09d805caeef/holiday-2020-mafk.jpg" data-mid="1028425" border="0" />Holiday card 2020Carrizo Plain, CA Artists that I support namapila Callie CardamonGroups that I support USC Young Researchers Program Association of Women Geoscientists - DMV Chapter Wangari Gardensboltingup.com Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV&nbsp; Personal&nbsp;&nbsp;Archives Personal Interests Reading/Listening List:&nbsp; see Phil’s... http://www.kpkong.com/Projects Mon, 09 Dec 2019 22:04:17 +0000 PK 349882 Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives &nbsp; Projects Geologist, Advanced Resources International (2017-2020)&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; As a geologist for ARI, Phil worked on on the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP), serving as a subject matter expert in greenhouse gas emissions from extractive processes such as oil and gas production and underground coal mining. Among many tools, Phil used ArcMap, Python, and PostgreSQL to organize and navigate through large emissions datasets annually collected by the EPA.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Phil has also worked on international outreach on methane emission mitigation for the US EPA through the Global Methane Initiative (GMI) and the Coalbed Methane Outreach Program (CMOP). Through this work, he has&nbsp;conducted research and drafted pre-feasibility studies on projects that propose to reduce methane emissions from coal mines around the world, delivered presentations to industry leaders and policymakers around the world at Group of Experts meetings sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, and developed a training module for methane capture project feasibility assessments. Selected works: Live webinar presentation on Financial and regulatory incentives for U.S. CMM projects - US EPA, September 12, 2018 Pre-feasibility study for methane drainage and utilization at the TengHui Coal Mine - March 2019: (contributing author)Training course for conducting a pre-feasibility assessment for methane capture at coal mines (drafted, edited, submitted modules 1 - 3, drafted modules 4 - 5. <img width="737" height="884" width_o="737" height_o="884" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/2e63134befa2fd697c684f218b6d797c3d7fed525e1cfcaf740af1e52e32de71/prefeas.png" data-mid="829283" border="0" data-scale="49"/> Graduate Student, Penn State University (2015-2017) &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Phil worked with Dr. Peter Heaney at Penn State to study the oxidation-reduction chemistry between aqueous chromium and manganese oxides. Taking simultaneous measurements using time-resolved (TR) X-ray diffraction, TR&nbsp; X-ray spectroscopy, and aqueous chemical spectrometry, he monitored the redox process between aqueous chromium (III) and birnessite at different concentrations of solution pH.&nbsp; Phil’s master’s thesis can be found here. <img width="4608" height="3456" width_o="4608" height_o="3456" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/da51273f75be141670eb8b3a8af4c04ebdac6325b5ea138df3b4ce0c2bf322a6/kong.jpg" data-mid="829284" border="0" data-scale="52"/> Phil at 13-ID-E , Advanced Photon Source PublicationsPeer-Reviewed 1 Kong K, Heaney, P.J., Fischer, T.B., Post, J.E., Stubbs, J.E., Eng, P.J. (2019) Mineralogical and geochemical constraints on chromium oxidation induced by birnessite. Applied Geochemistry, 108, 104365. PDF Conference Proceedings 1 Talkington, C. and Kong, K. and Ruiz, F., Achieving Near-Zero Methane Emissions Coal Mining. 14th Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies Conference Melbourne 21-26 October 2018 (GHGT- 14). PDF Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives &nbsp; Projects Geologist, Advanced Resources International (2017-2020)&nbsp;... http://www.kpkong.com/Research-Interests Fri, 11 Jan 2019 03:00:21 +0000 PK 306236 Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives Research Interests Phil is interested in investigating how trace metals in oceans impact the global cycling of metals and nutrients. He is a member of&nbsp;Seth John’s laboratory group&nbsp;at the University of Southern California. More information will be posted in the future. Stay tuned! Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives Research Interests Phil is interested in investigating how trace metals in oceans... http://www.kpkong.com/Home-Page Thu, 05 Nov 2015 17:31:02 +0000 PK 306232 Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives <img width="724" height="861" width_o="724" height_o="861" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/9b9ac51e5a6eb17019ad88fbe5e27fe7ef67533a61526ae5b76a871d10d5be97/bg.jpg" data-mid="828817" border="0" /> &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Phil Kong Phil Kong is a geochemist interested in global element cycling and climate dynamics. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Southern California.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;  &nbsp; <img width="1024" height="1024" width_o="1024" height_o="1024" src_o="https://cortex.persona.co/t/original/i/a34b953021b3c66d026c7694bbd0ff2d3e6fb2a49aa28fb758c9740d693a07bb/1024px-Google_Scholar_logo.svg.png" data-mid="1349407" border="0" data-scale="4"/> Home  Research Interests  Projects  CV  Personal  Archives &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Phil Kong Phil Kong is a geochemist interested in...