Tuesday, 6 November 2007
British Dam Society
You can find out about:
- some of the different Types of dams
- their Uses
- what Spillways & Outlets do
- professionals who Design dams
- methods of Building them
- how People and Environment are affected by them
- how their Safety is checked
- and Links to other interesting web-sites
Link to British Dam Society
Can Shanghai turn green and grow?
Shanghai has been transformed into a global city - but its rapid growth has produced pollution, traffic jams and overcrowding.In becoming one of the centres of the world economy, Shanghai has grown faster than almost any other global city in the past 15 years.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Can Shanghai turn green and grow?
Shanghai: Creating a global city
Shanghai is the ultimate poster-child for the effects of globalisation on cities and regions.China's largest city languished for 30 years as the Chinese economy was closed to outside influence, and the country went through the political turmoil of the cultural revolution.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Shanghai: Creating a global city
How much is family life changing?
A BBC poll suggests that three-quarters of Britons are optimistic about their family's future - a much higher figure than when people were asked more than 40 years ago.
There is afamily test. A PDF of the BBC/ICM poll.
There are six photo journals published as part of the BBC's Future Family week, exploring the changing nature of family life.
Egypt, Sierra leone, India, Indonesia, Uk and China.
Sunday, 4 November 2007
BBC NEWS | Health | Bed-blocking 'on the rise again'
Delayed discharges from hospitals - so-called "bed-blocking" - rose sharply last year, according to figures released in Parliament.
In total, more than a million "bed days" were lost, with an increase of almost 30% in acute hospitals.
Link to BBC NEWS | Health | Bed-blocking 'on the rise again'
Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite | Environment | The Guardian
Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.
Record world prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Wheat has doubled in price, maize is nearly 50% higher than a year ago and rice is 20% more expensive, says the UN. Next week the FAO is expected to say that global food reserves are at their lowest in 25 years and that prices will remain high for years.
Link to Global food crisis looms as climate change and fuel shortages bite | Environment | The Guardian
Migrants stories -CASE STUDIES
4 case studies
Catherine Chuungwe, 43, from Zambia, settled in Northern Ireland three years ago
Narina Shorland, 24, from St Petersburg, works at Riverford Organic Vegetables in Devon
Grzegor Jagienak, 22, from Poland, has been in the UK for three months working full-time as a bartender at Cargo, a club in Shoreditch, east London
Victoria Patricio, 28, born in Botswana, has Portuguese nationality and has been in Thetford, Norfolk, for three years. She is a facilitator with Meta, a project working with migrants
Link to Labour accused of failing to tackle misinformation | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
New 'disaster' movie warns world of oil apocalypse | Environment | The Observer
Oil is 'the bloodstain of the earth's economy' and will soon trigger a global conflict that will cost millions of lives. That is the stark claim of a controversial new film, which says a crash in oil production is about to set off worldwide recession and economic collapse.
LINK to the films websiteLink to New 'disaster' movie warns world of oil apocalypse | Environment | The Observer
Saturday, 3 November 2007
Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
GLOSSARY
Outsourcing: Moving company functions from internal departments to external firms
Offshoring: Relocating corporate activities overseas.
Nearshoring: Relocating offshore activities nearer the client's home country
BPO: Business processing outsourcing - moving white collar tasks like accounting or invoicing. to an external firm
Captive firms: Companies owned by foreign multinationals who perform outsourcing services for the parent firm
UK call centres/US contact centers: Offices where workers provide telephone customer services like sales
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | Multinationals lead India's IT revolution
Mass exodus from Mexico flooding
Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing severe flooding in the southern Mexican state of Tabasco.
The state capital, Villahermosa, has been largely abandoned after the Grijalva river burst its banks late Thursday, submerging much of the city.
Link to BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Mass exodus from Mexico flooding
Thursday, 1 November 2007
Three Gorges Dam
Interactive site from FT.com
Link to 571cc608-87e4-11dc-9464-0000779fd2ac.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)
Saturday, 27 October 2007
Tread Lightly
If we all Tread lightly we can make a difference
Guardian launches unique website to help readers to reduce carbon footprint.
If Guardian readers...
Switched to energy-efficient light bulbs this week, we could turn off a coal-fired power station for one day, one hour, 46 minutes and 1 second.
Turned off all appliances for a week instead of leaving them on standby, the power station could be turned off for 15 hours, 12 minutes and 43 seconds.
Turned down their thermostat by 1C for a week, we could turn off a coal-fired power station for 22 hours, 21 minutes and eight seconds.
Link to Tread Lightly | Environment | Guardian Unlimited
Friday, 26 October 2007
Globalisation Guide
Useful site that poses a series of questions.
Section onwho are the players is especially useful
Link to Globalisation Guide
Population
This resource pack describes and explains what are the global patterns of population change through:
- interpretation of world population distribution
- interpretation of the demographic transition model
- interpretation of differing population structures
These materials support the Global Citizenship and Interdependence element of the WJEC GCSE geography (A - mainstream) specification, in particular the key question "What are the global patterns of population change?" The materials also offer the learning experiences of interpreting maps and graphs.
Animation and graphics are used to show the dynamic nature of population change. A set of background notes is provided as guidance for the teacher.
Link to Introduction
Thursday, 25 October 2007
A380 superjumbo lands in Sydney
The world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380, has landed in Sydney on its first commercial flight, after a seven-hour journey from Singapore.Singapore Airlines took delivery of the huge plane, dubbed the Superjumbo, just over a week ago. Passengers bought seats in a charity online auction. It can carry some 850 passengers, but took about 450 to Sydney.
The superjumbo's advent ends a reign of nearly four decades by the Boeing 747 as the world's biggest airliner.
Link to BBC NEWS | Business | A380 superjumbo lands in Sydney
Humans failing the sustainability audit
With its Geo-4 report, the United Nations tells us that most aspects of the Earth's natural environment are in decline; and that the decline will affect us, the planet's human inhabitants, in some pretty important ways.
There is a link tothe PDF file which is downloadable.
BEWARE is huge
Link to BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Humans failing the sustainability audit
Air-freight food must pass fair trade test to retain organic label in future
Food air-freighted to Britain from developing countries will only bear an organic label in future if it can be shown that it was produced to fair trade standards as well as high environmental standards, the Soil Association said yesterday.
The move by Britain's leading organic inspectors follows concern about the climate change impact of food flown long distances and fears that some developing countries are in danger of losing markets due to new "green" protectionism.
The association rejected calls from the public, environmentalists and some of its own producers for a ban on all air-freighted organic food, deciding this would penalise many poor countries which benefit in terms of jobs and wages from growing organic food for British consumers.
Link to Air-freight food must pass fair trade test to retain organic label in future | Environment | The Guardian
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