New Swindon

The New Swindon Company was formed in 2002 to stimulate investment and co-ordinate plans for revitalisation of the town centre as a key component to achieving sustainable economic growth. The urban regeneration area is around 220 hectares and the major projects cover about 25% of the total.

Jointly funded by English Partnerships, the South West of England Regional Development Agency and Swindon Borough Council, The New Swindon Company is one of a limited number of Urban Regeneration Companies formed as a result of a Government initiative to breathe new life into key areas.

The Regeneration Framework sets out the strategies for the seven major project areas. It is the result of detailed economic and performance analyses as well as public feedback. For more information on a specific project area, click on the project name above.

Link to New Swindon - About us

Walk Score

What is Walk Score? We help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment.

Link to Walk Score - Helping homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods.

Devastating floods hit South Asia

Almost 20 million people have been displaced as some of the worst floods for years have hit a wide swathe of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Link to BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Devastating floods hit South Asia

Where has all the water gone?

England and Wales may be experiencing one of their wettest summers on record, but some of the UK's reservoirs and underground reserves are still not full.

Link to BBC NEWS | UK | Where has all the water gone?

23.07.07. UK FLOODS

LINK Interactive explanation of why the floods occurred

LINK Gallery of images from the Guardian

LINK The worst flood ever

LINK map of flood areas

Link to 23.07.07. Interactive. UK floods | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

LINK what to do if your house is flooded

LINK BBC Flood crisis operation launched

Tanker beached in Australia

The Pasha Bulker wound up in this condition near Newcastle, Aus, for almost the entire month of June. Their mistake: ignoring warnings to head out to sea in advance of a major storm.
By the time they were grounded, they had to actually further ground it in advance off yet another storm. They pushed it parallel to the beach, so that it wouldn't sink entirely and release 700,000 tons of fuel oil into the water.

Worlds tallest man

The world's tallest man, Bao Xishun, who stands 2.36 metres (7 feet 8 inches) tall.

Weblinks

SLN weblinks

Link to 7-11 Weblinks

'$100 laptop' production begins

Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production.Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. Previously, the organisation behind the scheme said that it required orders for 3m laptops to make production viable. The first machines should be ready to put into the hands of children in developing countries in October 2007.

Link to BBC NEWS | Technology | '$100 laptop' production begins

FLOODS July 2007

Link to BBC NEWS | Special Reports | 629 | 629 | Floods: At-a-glance

Flood crisis grows as rivers rise LINK

The Severn: Severe warnings for Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Worcester

The Thames: Severe warnings affecting Eynsham to Sandford Lock and also Little Wittenham

The Ock: Severe warnings from Charney Bassett to Abingdon

The Great Ouse: Severe warnings from Turvey to Sharnbrook

The Avon: Severe warnings at Evesham

LINK Floods bring chaos across county

Gloucestershire FLOODS LINK

Flood in pictures LINK

How Green is My Region?

Is England moving toward or away from environmental sustainability?How do England’s nine regions compare in the sustainability stakes?

Our research (PDF†) found that there are some good green policies in each of England’s nine regions. But overall each region is being held back by having to comply with central Government requirements to adopt environmentally damaging policies and trends.

Link to Friends of the Earth: England: News: How Green is My Region?

Gapminder - Dollar Street, 2002

All people of the world live on Dollar Street, the poorest to the left and the richest to the right. Everybody else live inbetween. Dollar Street contains complete photo-panoramas from households at different income levels. Current version includes 13 household and 3 school documentations from Mozambique, South Africa and Uganda. Scroll the street to left and right to move up and down the street. Click on the houses to get inside and explore different household functions.

Link to Gapminder - Dollar Street, 2002

State of the Countryside 2007

This year's State of the Countryside report shows there are now nearly 400,000 fewer young people aged 15-29 in rural areas than just twenty years ago. This trend is set against a rising rural population overall and has contributed significantly to a rural demographic which is both older and ageing faster than urban areas. The report also shows:

• that rural areas experienced over 200% growth in the number of migrant workers in the last three years;
• the average rural household spent nearly £480 per week in 2005, £60 per week higher than was paid by the average urban household;
• that just 44% of households in sparse isolated rural areas are within easy reach of a GP;
• a near doubling of energy crops in the last year; and
• that due to the changing climate there are now nearly 400 vineyards in England and Wales.

Link to CRC Publications CRC 46 - State of the Countryside 2007

New Forest: Coastal Management

New Forest District Council has 60 km of coastline, extending from Chewton Bunny, Christchurch Bay in the west to Redbridge, Southampton Water in the east; this also includes approximately 9km of the lower reaches of the Beaulieu and Lymington Rivers within the Western Solent. This stretch of coastline has a wide range of geologically and geomorphologically important features that include soft cliffs, spits and barrier beaches, saltmarshes and mudflats. These dynamically evolving environments are also of international importance for nature conservation.

Link to New Forest: Coastal Management

Malaria Lesson Teaching Resources

Malaria is an important disease for students to be aware of – the following teaching resources have been used for use among A’ Level learners but can be adapted for younger students.

(1) Malaria Multiple choice quiz (PDF format - 28kb)
(2) Malaria PowerPoint (PPT format - 274kb)
(3) Malaria Tasks – can be used to assess learning (PDF format - 18kb)
(4) Teaching Lesson Plan (PDF format - 21kb)

Link to Malaria Lesson Teaching Resources

Search for the world in one city

When they were boys, Alex Horne and Owen Powell obsessively collected Panini football stickers. Now the two friends have embarked on a more daunting task: instead of hunting down that elusive Portuguese striker, they are trying to find a person from every country in the world who lives in London.

Their quest for the 'World in One City' was launched on 24 October last year, United Nations Day. More than seven months later, they have ticked off more than half of the UN's 192 official nationalities, starting with the Philippines and leading in the last week alone to Albania, Finland, Uganda, Vietnam and Senegal, the 112th profile added to their blog,

BLOG

Link to Search for the world in one city | UK News | The Observer

Logging in Northern Republic of Congo

This very high resolution image of northern Republic of Congo was captured on June 27, 2002, by the commercial satellite Ikonos. The wider-area view at top shows dirt logging roads (orange lines) and different types of forest in the area around the border of the Sangha and Likouala regions. The lower view is a close-up image that shows not only part of a logging road, but also felling sites (clearings where trees are cut down) and skid trails (paths where trees are dragged toward the road.) Individual trees or sections of trees stacked on the road at left look like matchsticks.

Two types of forest are shown in the top image. At bottom left is a tropical evergreen forest with an extremely dense canopy, a forest type known locally as limbali forest. Most of the rest of the scene is occupied by a more open forest in which stands of trees (dark green patches) are separated from each other by a sea of lower-growing plants (light green)

Link to EO Newsroom: New Images - Logging in Northern Republic of Congo

Country Information

Maps and information available

Link to Countries of the World : geography, tourism, politics, economy, culture

New Seven Wonders of the World

LINK to seven wonders site

Link to BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: New Seven Wonders of the World

BBC NEWS | UK | Q&A: June floods

Flooding has been so extreme in some parts of the UK that the Army has been called in to lend assistance. Meteorologist Nina Ridge from the BBC weather centre explains how and why heavy rainfall has created so much chaos.

What has caused the extreme weather?

How long will it last?

Is climate change to blame?

Was the flooding unexpected?

What role has 'run-off' rain played?

Is this weather normal for this time of year?

Link to BBC NEWS | UK | Q&A: June floods