Spot the difference!

Both Sydney... But one's in Australia and one's in Canada...

And as this article from the BBC illustrates, it's all too easy end up in the wrong place when you're booking your holidays...

Geography Matters!! ;-)

Because of Geography...

Conversations in a variety of contexts with a variety of students about Dubai over the past week or so, so I was interested to see the Fly Emirates advert:



Also interesting, in my planning for the AS Geography taster lessons, to read about Xeritown... More links later, but don't want to spoil Tuesday!!

More and more people realising the importance of Geography...

Twitter Snow Map

I mentioned the other day about Twitter and the UK snow map, and also about the arrival of Google Earth 5. The two have been rather neatly combined to produce this nice animation:



And there's more snow on the way, according to the Met Office... (Although still actually rather sunny outside at the moment here.)

Australian wildfires

With the crazy snow dominating the headlines this week, there hasn't been as much attention as there might have been focused on the wildfires that are causing huge destruction across the Australian state of Victoria.

At least 65 people have been killed, and entire towns have been destroyed in the fires which are said to be the worst in the area since 1983.

The BBC has a horrifying In Pictures series together with various articles and videos from the past couple of weeks:

GCSE Geography

I have spoken to all Year 9 geographers this week about GCSE Geography... As a reminder and for those who were too busy playing in the snow to come to school today, here's the presentation I used. Many thanks to Liz Smith and Jo Blackmore as several of the slides were borrowed from their presentations.

GCSE Geography

View more presentations from vikellis.

And the Geography Matters video here:


Don't forget, if you have any questions about the course, or about GCSE Geography in general, speak to your Geography teacher or come and see me...

Snow!! And a competition...

Lots more snow in the early hours of this morning... And a day off! Plenty of photos and videos, news articles about the lack of grit, etc. on the BBC website, and an explanation here of what's causing this weather...

My slightly lop-sided snowman:

And I think that it's about time for another Geogtastic photo competition. So, SHS students and staff - send your best snow photo to me via email (if you send from your school email, you just need to type vel into the address bar) before Tuesday 10th Feb...

And more snow...

Actually, not more snow in our neck of the woods, just very cold so that the snow we had yesterday and last night was nicely frozen and dangerous... It looked very pretty though:


Lots and lots of stories, videos, photos, etc. on the BBC website, and a nice set of photos by Twitter users on Flickr (including mine from Smalley Dam yesterday)...

I particularly like this though...

Google Earth 5

Just exploring Google Earth 5 which features a new Oceans layer, historical imagery and simplified touring...
Exciting stuff!!

More snow....

Plenty of updates to the Twitter snow map throughout the day...

Rather more snow here today than there was yesterday, but still not enough for a snow day...

Photos (and maybe a video for Callum's benefit) from my walk to Smalley Dam this afternoon to follow...

Snow...

You will probably have noticed the weather forecasts over the weekend, with Met Office warnings for "heavy snow", and, depending where in the country you are, you might also have noticed some snow...

The East Midlands was meant to be one of the worst hit areas... There was nothing, however, til the middle of this afternoon - then a sudden flurry that lasted all of five minutes. I was going to go out and video it but on opening the front door, I changed my mind. Instead, here's the view from the bedroom window:


Snow in Smalley... from victoria ellis on Vimeo.


All that's left now is a fine scattering, nicely frozen and slippy ready to cause mayhem in the morning...

You will also, most likely, have heard of Twitter in the news of late. Like many other people, I didn't "get it" at first, but it's grown on me and I've discovered lots of interesting things - especially, though not exclusively, about ICT in education... Anyway, across the "TwitterVerse", people are "tweeting" snow reports, which are being incorporated into this Google Maps mashup:
I suspect that it says more about the locations of Twitter users who are still up and about than it does about where it's snowing most, but either way, it's interesting from a geographical point-of-view.

Is it snowing where you are?

Gumboot Dancing...

Josh C's stamping about in the Hums corridor at breaktime the other day reminded me of the "gumboot dancing" that some of the boys at the school I worked in in South Africa used to do.

Gumboot dancing originated in the gold mines of South Africa during the Apartheid years, when the mine workers - forbidden to speak - slapped their gumboots and rattled their ankle chains to send messages to each other. It has since developed into a "working class art form with universal appeal".



This is one of the many gumboot dancing videos on YouTube - none of them are quite as spectacular as "the real thing", but will give you a taste of what it's all about...

Explore: Patagonia to the Pampas

Those of you who liked Tropic of Capricorn (and/or Simon Reeve!) will be pleased to know that he is back this evening with a new series - Explore... Detail about the first programme is here:

Simon Reeve leads a team of presenters on a journey through the spectacular landscapes of Argentina, from the vast ice fields of Patagonia to the wide-open plains of the pampas.

In the south, a group of indigenous people are locked in a historic dispute with the area's biggest landowners, Italian clothing giants Benetton; in Buenos Aires, the children of the disappeared are seeking to find out the truth of what happened to their parents at the hands of Argentina's generals; and in the pampas we meet one of the last true gauchos, whose way of life is being destroyed by an argricultural revolution.

On the way, we take in one of the greatest matches in world football, visit a penguin colony on the edge, and meet a bishop with a rather unorthodox interest in Evita.

BBC2, 9.00pm

Very useful map generator

Just discovered, via Noel Jenkins' Digital Geography blog, a really useful website that allows you to custom colour a map of the world (the one below shows where in the world I've been... think I need to get travelling a bit more!):

Aneki.com also has a wealth of facts, figures and superlatives, and there is a handy little tool to compare two countries.

Get exploring!

You think it's cold here?

Some great pictures from Hannah, whose cousin lives in Canada... -25oC there at the moment...

Fancy yourself as a travel photographer?

The Guardian are running a travel photography competition for under-16s... All you have to do is to send them a photograph of a place that you love that will make people want to go there...

Prizes up for grabs include a family ticket to Alton Towers and a £50 book token... More details here.

Slumdog Millionaire

If you haven't already, it is well worth going to see Slumdog Millionaire...



This audio slideshow from the Observer, looking at Dharavi - the Mumbai slum where the film was made - makes for interesting viewing, and there are some great descriptions of Dharavi and what life is like there in this article.

Changing Derbyshire

Nice resource from the BBC looking at how Derby is changing with developments such as Westfield and Derby Cityscape... Lots of photos, artists' impressions of future developments, and some interesting discussions about the impact that all this will have on the city.

Are you the Young Geographer of the Year 2009??

It is Young Geographer of the Year time again - and there are some fantastic prizes up for grabs! For the 16-18 year old category, the prize is a place on a month-long BSES expedition to East Greenland, and for the 13-15 category and the 12 and under category, you could win a 5-day "Arctic Ice Adventure" - both are fantastic opportunities and you'd be daft not to enter!! (Oh, and you can win some fab Geography goodies for school as well!)

What you need to do:

"We want you to carry out a project that involves a journey to the Arctic. What would you take with you and why? What would ensure your journey’s success? Your project should reflect a thorough investigation into the geography of the Arctic and a realistic portrayal of a journey to the North Pole. We would also like you to include one luxury item for your journey and an explanation of your item of choice and your reasons for choosing it.Your entry can take whatever form you think is most appropriate – be it a written report, a short video film, a photographic essay, an audio file or a mix of all of these. The most important thing is that you plan and research accordingly for your Arctic journey and most of all – make sure to be creative and have fun!"

If you want more information, click on the picture below to link, or come and speak to me...

Some historical Geography!

I have mentioned the brilliant-ness of Flickr before, but I have just discovered an amazing set of images of Norway, Sweden and Denmark from 1890-1910...


This one shows the Supphellebreen Glacier in Sognefjord, Norway:

The 169 images have been added by the Library of Congress (the national library of the USA) and are part of a set of 6500 "photochrom prints" ("Published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, these prints were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. The richly colored images look like photographs but are actually ink-based photolithographs, usually 6.5 x 9 inches.") of Europe and the Middle East.

Click here to go to the Photochrom Travel Views set on the Library of Congress Flickr page.

Even more interesting is the "Then and Now" project that has been set up by Flickr users, comparing the LoC images with recent ones of the same views. Unfortunately none of the "nows" are Creative Commons images, but if you click on the screenshot below it will take you to the Then and Now page.

Iasi

Since I added the FeedJit widget to the blog, the most interesting thing has been watching the various odd locations it seems to think I come from - at the moment, it thinks I live in Worksop, but whilst I've been sitting in the very same spot I'm in now, it's had me in Rotherham, Doncaster, Nottingham and Mansfield. At my parents' house in Bradford, it thought I was in Mansfield and Huddersfield, mainly. It's also been pleasing to see that there have been a good number (though perhaps not as many as there should be, given the intended audience of the blog!) of visits from Alfreton (or maybe the visits registered as Alfreton are actually in Sheffield somewhere...).

Anyway, another interesting thing about it is that I have discovered a regular visitor from Iasi in Romania. Being a geographer, and having never heard of Iasi, I felt the need to go and find out more...

Iasi (which should have an accent on the s which I can't do in Blogger (does any one know how?!)) is, according to Wikipedia (which can't always be trusted, admittedly!) pronounced Jassy. It's a city in the northeast of Romania, as shown on the less than brilliant Google Earth screenshot below...

Although there are a good many videos about Iasi on YouTube (the "sad city", the "city of dreams" etc) I haven't found it particularly easy to find out much more about Iasi - other than that it is sometimes known as The City of Seven Hills.

Iasi is also home to the oldest Romanian university, and is a city known for its culture.

The Wikipedia entry (approach with caution!) is here, and there is more information on the Iasi City website.

Hopefully Suzzmoon, (my Romanian is not great, but I think that she is a geographer and student, perhaps a geography student) will be able to tell us more....????

For a more general flavour of Romania, have a look at this video from http://www.romaniatravel.com/:

Cold...

You will probably have noticed that it's been a bit chilly of late... Some pictures I took last week at Scar House in Nidderdale:

And it's been pretty cold in Paris too, judging by these fab pictures courtesy of my sister who lives there:

However... the "Arctic blast" has casued huge disruption across Europe, and the cold has been blamed for the deaths of at least twelve people...

The decision by Russia to shut down gas supplies via the Ukraine has affected fifteen countries and left hundreds of thousands of homes without heating.

Closer to home, cold weather payments, issued when temperatures fall to 0oC for seven consecutive days, have caused controversy...

The Big Freeze Round-Up from the Met Office is a good summary of the weather of the first fortnight of 2009 - which is predicted to be one of the five warmest years on record!

The Blogging/Tagging Game

It seems that I have been tagged by Alan Parkinson (aka GeoBlogs) for a blogging "game". The idea is that I tell you, Geogtastic readers, seven things you didn't know about me! So here goes...

1. I am left-handed... That is, I write with my left hand, which means that when I write on the board, it is with my left hand, although given the regular interjections in my lessons along the lines of "Why are you writing with your left hand, Miss?" that is not something that is widely known. I throw [badly] with my right hand though, and if I was forced to kick a ball I would probably do it with my right foot. I hold my knife and fork as though I were right-handed, but can't use a spoon in my right hand (much to the upset of my late great grandmother, who apparently used to take the spoon out of my left hand and force me to use my right.

2. I spent a year before university living in South Africa. I taught Biology, Physical Science, Speech & Drama, PE (!!) and Art (!!!) and was a houseparent looking after twelve 15-year old girls... (I was 18. It was good experience!) I seriously looked into staying in South Africa to do my degree - in Biology, not Geography... It turned out to be too expensive, which was probably for the best... I wonder what would have happened if I had stayed there?!

3. I played the clarinet, the saxophone and the piano when I was at school. I was never very good at the piano because I didn't like having short nails, but wasn't bad at the clarinet or saxophone... Not played either for a long time though, until last week.

4. I like filling in forms.... strange but true... I don't understand it either.

5. I caused myself a nasty injury trying to wash a tomato tin for recycling... Since then, despite the fact that I do recycle glass, paper and card wherever possible, and buy things with not much packaging, etc.), I don't always recycle tins. I think that better be my New Year's resolution...

6. I like cooking and baking, and like to think that I am not bad.... Ask Mr Rodgers or Mr Hoben about Malteser Cake.

7. Despite telling Alan Parkinson a couple of years ago that I couldn't understand his interest in what he referred to as "Cool Geography", I seem to have developed a strange fascination with ice, snow, cold places... Antarctica, Norway (far enough north to see the Northern Lights), Svalbard and South Georgia (blame the penguin webcam) are at the top of my "To Visit" list, together with Japan, Madagascar, New Zealand, the Grand Canyon, and lots of other places...

ps Several other people who have completed this "activity" have added photographs to illustrate their seven facts. With the laptop issues I have had of late, I can't easily lay my hands on relevant pictures, but will try to add some over the next few days.

I am supposed to "tag" seven other people to continue this blog game... Several of the people I would have tagged have already been done, so I will add:

Mrs Magee - Histatic
Mrs Kambalu - Adventures in T&L (amongst others)
Val Vannet - GMPaY
Anna Simpson - Natural Wonders
Ayrshire Geography
Mr M - Hulme Geog Blog

Artistic Clues to Coastal Change

I've just been reading an interesting article from the BBC about the use of 19th Century paintings to aid the study of coastal erosion...

Many Victorian paintings such as the one above ('Bonchurch, Isle of Wight' by Thomas Leeson Rowbotham, 1863) show coastal scenery, geological features and coastal defences in lots of detail, and Dr Robert McInnes, a retired coastal engineer, has devised a system for using these paintings to assess change.

The full article from the BBC is here.

Christmas Trees - The Verdict

Despite repeated attempts by a certain History teacher to sabotage the results, the verdict - according to the poll - is that real Christmas trees are better than artificial ones...

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas whether your tree was real, artificial, or non-existent!

Merry Christmas!!

At last - after a very long and tiring term, the holidays are here! I will still be blogging over the holidays, but would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!

And don't forget to track Santa on Christmas Eve!!

Image: Flickr user stephendl (under Creative Commons)

Happy Birthday to Us!!!

Just realised that Geogtastic was two years old yesterday... And if you visited yesterday, yours may well have been the 25000th visit - yay!!

To celebrate, our own Google page...

Christmas Trees?

Was amused by this cartoon from Natural News the other day...

The real or artificial Christmas tree debate is not a new one but still one that divides opinions... Vote in the poll on the right-hand side and let us know what you think!

DoodleBuzz

A novel way to explore the news, (via Noel Jenkins and Alan Parkinson)....



Noel also has links to a variety of other relational browsers here, some of which I've seen before, but others which are new to me...

Geography really is everywhere...

How well do you know your world?

The Guardian recently reported the results of [another!] survey about how little we know about the world... Read the article here and then have a go at this quiz... How much do you know? (And how useful is the quiz as a measure of how good a geographer you are?!)

Thanks to Tony Cassidy.

Santa Tracking...

Many of you will have seen the Norad Santa Tracking site in previous years... The site is back up and running from tomorrow, with new games and activities every day, building up to Christmas Eve when you can follow Santa's progress via Google Maps, Google Earth and Live Santa Cams!

Happy St Andrew's Day!

Image - Flickr user Grant MacDonald (Creative Commons)

Vendee Globe Update

Conditions not sounding too pleasant for the Vendee Globe competitors at the moment:



Find out more here.

Or have a go yourself in the Virtual Regatta! I've not quite got my head round it yet, but could be interesting... Click on the picture to link to the site:

A year without money??

Could you survive for a year without spending any money at all? That is what Mark Boyle is planning to do. Starting today (which is Buy Nothing Day) Mark will be living in this caravan... And will be "living off that land and the waste products of society".



Find out more here.

If everyone cared...

Thought-provoking assemblies this week from the 6th Form Amnesty International Group. Here's the video they showed:



Click on the logo below to link to the Amnesty International website and find out more about what you can do...

Sailing Update...

Vendee Globe

Almost 14 days into the race, more than half of the Vendee Globe boats have crossed the Equator...



It's not all been plain sailing though... A great description from Steve White about his time in the Doldrums:

"I have been released from the Doldrums. I thought initially that perhaps I'd escaped punishment, but it was not so. At one point I was trapped under a cloud that filled a 24 mile range radar screen - and boy, did it rain! It was almost Biblical! We just sat in the midst of it with the sails banging and slatting back and forth, which is a sailor's Chinese water torture, with the rain bucketing down. That was the largest of many clouds, but there were very many equally frustrating ones, sometimes with wind in them, and sometimes only with wind at the edges, and nothing but torrential rain and no wind at all in the centre. There were gusts, but never that big, up to about 20 knots usually, but that's enough when you normally have a couple of reefs in and full ballast tanks by that point, and, you've guessed it, it can blow from any direction. It changes direction so frequently that I often had to look at the wind direction from the instruments and make funny angles with my hands to work out which tack I should be on to get me best to where I wanted to go! At some points I was going backwards faster than I'd been going forwards for the preceding few hours! It changed so often it can get confusing if you're tired. It has been really frustrating, and I am not keen to come back, but it is another experience to add to the list. I often imagined what it would be like to come through here in a square rigger. You can see how they got stuck here for weeks, sooner them than me....... When it rained for the first time,which was both a blessed relief from the heat and the chance for a shower for me..."

Rich Wilson, the only American in the race, has a very good website - check out the Saturday Updates Q&A section, and his description here of the traditions of crossing the Equator.

Mike Perham

The other sailing story at the moment is that of Mike Perham, who set off last Sunday in an attempt to be the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed. He has stopped briefly in Portugal for some repairs to his boat, but is hoping to be off again soon. Follow his progress on his website here.

South Polar Gazette

Want to know what's going on in the Antarctic? Then check out the South Pole Gazette...

Upside down!

ɯoɔ˙ǝlʇıʇdılɟ//:dʇʇɥ

¡¡noʎ ɟo ǝɯos uıɐʇɹǝʇuǝ llıʍ ʇı ʇqnop ou ʇnq - ʇɐɥʇ oʇ ǝɯoɔ 'llɐ ʇɐ ǝsodɹnd lnɟǝsn ʎuɐ ɹo ˙˙˙ǝsodɹnd lɐɔıɥdɐɹƃoǝƃ lnɟǝsn ʎuɐ sɐɥ sıɥʇ ʇɐɥʇ ǝɹns ʇou ɯɐ ı

Fieldtrips...

And there I was thinking it was just you lot!

Fieldtrip

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: geography fieldtrip)

Fab work from Geography teacher and poet Mark Cowan!

Svalbard and Flickr, especially for 8JHr

Good evening 8JHr! First of all, you can find Laurel McFadden's blog about her adventures in Svalbard by clicking on the picture below:

The Svalbard photos that were up at the start of the lesson were from the fantastic Flickr... (All I did was to type "svalbard" into the search and click Slideshow.)

Have fun!!

California Wildfires...

One of a series of images from the BBC of the California wildfires that have resulted in a state of emergency being declared in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. Various related stories, links, video clips and images here.

ShakeOut

On Thursday, more than 5 million people across Southern California took part in a huge earthquake drill...



Find out more about ShakeOut here.

Sailing...

Last week I posted about the start of the Vendee Globe - 5 days into the race, the boats are passing the Canaries and heading for the Cape Verde Islands... It's not good news for everyone - some of the competitors, including Brit Alex Thomson, have had to retire from the race.

All the latest Vendee Globe news is on the official website and you can track the progress of the race here.

Also taking to the water today will be Mike Perham. Mike is 16 years old, and at 11am today, he will set sail from Portsmouth in "an historic bid to become the youngest person to sail around the world single-handed..." Click on the picture below to link to Mike's website where you can look at photos, video diaries, and track his progress...

Around the world in three months....

...by yourself... in one of these?

(Image: Aviva Ocean Racing)

That's exactly what the 30 sailors who've just left Les Sables d'Olonne in France are planning to do. They are taking part in the Vendee Globe, which runs every four years, and is described as "one of the most challenging tests of endurance there is".

You can find out more about the race here, where there are maps of the route, photos, video clips and weather reports, and information about the competitors, seven of whom are British. Find out more about them, their boats and their progress in the race on their websites: Mike Golding; Samantha Davies; Alex Thomson; Steve White; Jonny Malbon; Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari.

Rather them than me, I think!

Geo Challenge!

The Facebookers amongst you might like to have a go at Geo Challenge...

Be warned though... It is very addictive!

ShakeOut!

How would you cope if a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck? Very unlikely in Swanwick, but a real possibility for people living near the San Andreas Fault... which is why, on 13th November, more than 5 million people in Southern California will be taking part in The Great Southern Californian Shakeout - "the largest earthquake preparedness activity in US history".

Have a look at this video which shows what could happen when "the big one" strikes, and check out the ShakeOut website where there is lots more information, more video clips, and you can test your earthquake preparedness by playing Beat the Quake.



Thanks to Bob and Alan...

Carsington Wind Farm to go ahead...

Back in June, I posted about the decision by Derbyshire Dales District Council not to allow West Coast Energy to build four wind turbines at Carsington Pasture - overlooking Carsington Water, and not far from the villages of Hopton and Carsington.

Below is an artist's impression of what the turbines will look like from Carsington Water...

The council's decision has been overturned, however, by a government planning inspector who decided that the turbines would not have an "unacceptable" impact on the environment.

BBC News clip about the latest decision here...

Should the turbines go ahead? Will they be a terrible blot on the landscape? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!

Where's Wally?

If you're a "Where's Wally?" fan or a Google Earth fan (or both!) then today might be your lucky day!! Borders Books and the Daily Telegraph are running a competition (with holidays up for grabs as prizes) - and all you have to do is to find Wally in Google Earth!

Click on the picture below to find out more... And then get searching!!

Mt Chaiten

This was the view of Mt Chaiten in Chile in May this year...

Photo: Flickr user CaromicForever (CC)

Residents are on the alert again now as Mt Chaiten is showing further signs of activity.

"The Sistine Chapel of Crystals..."

Where in the world is this? And what's going on?

(Photo: The Telegraph)

Ottery St. Mary??

You could probably be forgiven if you haven't heard of Ottery St Mary - but this Devon town made the national news today after freak hailstorms caused "absolute chaos"...

Rather scary video and In Pictures from the BBC and an interesting set of photos and links on Great Geography (thanks Jo!).

And on a a related note, an interesting article from the BBC about the success (or otherwise of you read the whole article) of the new Boscastle flood defences.

Who said soil was boring?

One of the exhibitors at the SAGT Conference on Saturday was the Macaulay Institute, who describe themselves as "the UK's premier land use research centre". They have produced some fantastic resources about soils and succession, which some of the Year 13 geographers will have seen before, but I have just been looking at their website and there is loads more fantastic stuff on there which is well worth a look.

And on the topic of soils, I've also just discovered Soil-net.com! Enjoy!!

Oh, and if your eyesight is not that good and you are wondering just how many living organisms there are in a teaspoon of soil, click on the picture which will take you to a pdf of the original poster on the Macaulay Institute website!

Earthquake in Pakistan

It seems that whenever we are studying tectonics, there is an earthquake or a volcanic eruption somewhere in the world. Unfortunately, this time is no exception...

An earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale struck 35 miles from Quetta in the Balochistan province of Pakistan this morning at 4am. So far, the death toll is 160, but this is expected to rise.

The USGS has details here including a Google Map showing the location, and you can find out more from the BBC where there is a set of eyewitness accounts, an In Pictures series, and some video footage.

Yay! The return of the penguins!!

The seals have been back for a while, but I've just spotted the first penguins of the year on the South Georgia webcam! Webcam 1 is the original webcam, and you can also look at the seals closer up on Webcam 2...