A makeover for the tube map...

The London Underground map has fascinated people for years, and has appeared in various forms since it was first designed by Harry Beck - an electrical engineer - in 1933.

The latest take on the traditional tube map has been designed for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and features key Shakespeare characters in chronological order, and with separate lines for Heroes, Villains, and Strong and Difficult Women!

You can read more about the new map here and see a more larger version of the map by clicking on the image above.

Well I never!!!

Back in December, I was umming and aahing with the idea of starting a blog, but I wasn't sure what I'd write about, I wasn't sure who'd read it (if anyone) and I couldn't think what to call it...

Then, a Year 13 student told me my lesson had been "geogtastic"...

Nine months later, this is the 254th post, one of yesterday's 44 visitors made the 10,000th visit to the blog, and we've had visits from more than 40 countries, across six continents!!

Not much, in comparison with some of the other excellent "geogblogs" out there, but I am rather pleased nonetheless!

So, a big thank you to all our readers... Keep visiting, tell your friends, leave some comments, and let us know if you find anything Geogtastic that should be on here!!

Walkers' Carbon Footprint!

Next time you buy a packet of Walkers' crisps, take a good look at the packet... According to the article on Newsnight that I've just been watching, you'll not only be able to see what's in your crisps (100% British potatoes, apparently), and check your calorie/fat/salt/etc/ consumption, but you'll also now be able to see how your packet of crisps is affecting the environment.

Walkers are the first big company to sign up to a new Carbon Footprint labelling scheme, where products carry labels stating the carbon emissions. Walkers trialled this scheme earlier in the year, but now every product will carry the carbon footprint label.

Walkers have a special website which tells you more about the scheme, and more about how the process of crisp-making affects the environment...

Do you think this sounds like a good idea? Do you care how much carbon dioxide your crisps have produced? Should all manufacturers be required to put this kind of labelling on their products?

Derbyshire Day

I was reminded by a display in the entrance to Sainsbury's this afternoon that Saturday (22nd September) is the first ever Derbyshire Day!

This time last year, Andy Whittaker - presenter of the Breakfast Show on BBC Radio Derby - held a competition, and his listeners designed a Derbyshire flag...

Flushed with success, they then went on to plan for a Derbyshire Day, and the decision was made to hold Derbyshire Day on the anniversary of the launch of the Derbyshire flag - 22nd September.

There is loads on the BBC website about Derbyshire Day and the Derbyshire flag, and the display in the entrance of Sainsbury's was quite interesting.

The thing that stood out this evening though when I was looking for more information about all this was this article from Buxton Today... Apparently, the Derbyshire flag will not be flying above Buxton Town Hall, even on Saturday, because not enough people will recognise it or know what it's for!!

Is it a bird.........?

Nope - it's an artist's impression of the Wave Hub - the world's first large-scale wave farm!

The government have given the go-ahead today for this controversial project, and it is expected that the wave farm off the coast of Cornwall, which will cost £28 million and generate enough electricity for 7500 homes, will be operational by 2009.

You can read more about the project here or listen to Chris Evans' "Business Boffin" talking to one of the people behind the project. You need go here and then click on Listen Again Monday - it's about 25 minutes in.

What do you think? Is this a good idea? Or a bit mad?

Day for Darfur

The humanitarian crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan has been described as "one of the greatest tragedies of our time"... Since 2003, more than 200,000 people have been killed, and more than 2 million people displaced.

Today - Day for Darfur - rallies and protests have taken place in 30 cities across the world in an attempt to draw the world's attention to the violence in Darfur, and a new single by Mattafix - "Living Darfur" - was released. The video for the single - backed by Mick Jagger, George Clooney and Nelson Mandela - to name but a few, was filmed in the Darfur region. The picture below shows Marlon from Mattafix with children in Darfur. Marlon's diary from the visit to Darfur is here.

Amazingly, I have watched the news several times today, and there has been no mention of Darfur, the rallies, or the single, at all. Why not?

Some months ago, the US Holocaust Museum put together a series of photographs, eyewitness testimonies and data, using Google Earth to give some indication of the scale of the genocide in Darfur. http://www.ushmm.org/googleearth/

Earthquake in Indonesia...

Reports on the BBC website of another earthquake in Indonesia, which sparked fears of another tsunami.

The earthquake, near Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra, measured 8.4 on the Richter Scale.

More from the BBC here.

Geo Blogging with Mark

I've posted a few times about Mark Beaumont and his round-the-world cycle challenge, and I've also mentioned Val Vannet's excellent blog... Val is Mark's former Geography teacher, and is writing a really interesting summary of Mark's journey with extra geography for free! She's just started a new blog http://www.geobloggingwithmark.blogspot.com/ - a prize for the first SHS person to tell me the capital city of the country where Mark is at the moment!!

Don't forget, you can also follow Mark's progress, and read his "diary" on the World Cycle website...