Earth Hour against global warming

"Earth Hour is an annual international event created by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), held on the last Saturday of March, that asks households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It was pioneered by WWF Australia and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007[1], and achieved worldwide participation in 2008." Source : Wikipedia


More about on the official website.

Christmas song

Do you know Sufjan Stevens ? This american folk songwriter has created a marvellous Christmas song (for his grandma). You'll see at the end of the clip where Sufjan sings from.

Happy holidays !

An overview of Geography

What is Geography ? The following article makes a presentation of the oldest and mother of all sciences. More details on about.geography.com.

"The science of geography is likely the oldest of all sciences. Geography is the answer to the question that the earliest humans asked, "What's over there?" Exploration and the discovery of new places, new cultures, and new ideas have always been basic components of geography.

Thus, geography is often called the "mother of all sciences" as studying other people and other places led to other scientific fields such as biology, anthropology, geology, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, among others.

Divisions of Geography

Today, geography is commonly divided into two major branches- 1) cultural geography (also called human geography) and 2) physical geography.

Cultural Goegraphy is the branch of geography dealing with human culture and its impact on the earth. Cultural geographers study languages, religion, foods, building styles, urban areas, agriculture, transportation systems, politics, economies, population and demographics, and more.

Physicall geography is the branch of geography dealing with the natural features of the earth, the home of humans. Physical geography looks at the water, air, animals, and land of the planet earth (i.e. everything that is part of the four spheres - the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere.) Physical geography is closely related to geography's sister science - geology - but physical geography focuses more on the landscapes at the surface of the earth and not what is inside our planet.

Other key areas of geography include regional geography (which involves the in-depth study and knowledge of a particular region and its cultural as well as its physical characteristics) and geographic technologies like GIS (geographic information systems) and GPS (global positioning system)."

French Geography at school studies human geography, but it's more equal with physicall geography in UK.

FreeRice : an humanitarian game

An internet word game has generated enough rice to feed 50,000 people for one day, the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) has said.
Read the whole article on BBC website.

Improve your English by clicking on the image.

London closer to Europe

With the new terminus Saint-Pancras railway station London will be "closer to the patisseries of Paris and to the beers of Brussels" !
Let watch this promotional but geographic clip from Eurostar to understand how these new infracstructures will draw a new area to the East of London.

Shift happens

This clip is created by Karl Fish, an american teacher from a Colorado High School.

Did You Know

The 10 most polluted places in the world

This map features the 10 most polluted places in the world, as voted by the Blacksmith Institute. The Blacksmith Institute, founded in 1999, is a New York City based organization supporting pollution-related environmental projects.


View Larger Map

To read informations about the different nominated, click on the placemarks !

EU is 50 years old !

In 1957, the treaties of Roma founded the Union between six countries : Benelux, Germany, France and Italy. Today, its counts 27 States with the East Europe enlargement.

This techno-clip sums up the main steps of European Union history and explains in which fields its contributes to make our lives better.

Auschwitz through the lens of the SS: Photos of Nazi leadership at the camp

This is the introduction of the topic covered on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website.

"In January 2007, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received a donation of a photograph album. The inscription "Auschwitz 21.6.1944" on its first page signaled the uniqueness of the album—there are very few wartime photographs of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, which included Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi killing center. Though his name does not appear anywhere in the album, the dates of the photographs and various decorations including adjutant cords on the uniform of the album's owner, indicate that the album almost certainly belonged to and was created by SS-Obersturmführer Karl Höcker, the adjutant to the commandant of Auschwitz, SS-Sturmbannführer Richard Baer. Höcker was stationed at Auschwitz from May 1944 until the evacuation of the camp in January 1945."

Click on the first image to explore the album ! You'll discover the daily life of the SS. Many of the most remarkable photographs are taken at Solahütte, a little known SS resort some 30 km south of Auschwitz on the Sola River.

A "sing-along" during a social gathering of the SS hierarchy at Solahütte. The front row consists of (left to right): Karl Höcker, Otto Moll, Rudolf Höss, Richard Baer, Josef Kramer, Franz Hössler, and Josef Mengele. —United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #34739

The SS female auxiliaries (Helferinnen) react when it begins to rain on their day trip. —United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #34587

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum website also displays the famous and terrible Auschwitz Album.
A photograph of a selection, from the Auschwitz Album. —United States Holocaust Memorial Museum #77234, courtesy of Yad Vashem

The Cinematic Geography of Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, is known as the capital of Cinema Industry. In the following clip, you can see the main movies shooting in different places in L.A. ! If you love Geography, History and cinema, you'll be overjoyed !

I've haven't watched all of them yet, but my favorite ones are The Big Lebowsky, L.A. Confidential and Back to the Future !



Intersection Highway are very imposing. Using satellite imaging, this clip shows the widespread area of L.A.

Click on the image below to know more about L.A. Geography (in french).

Welcome to WikiProf !

Since Friday, Eurosection students have become new WikiStudents, by logging to WikiProf, an interactive and collaborative board. If you want to know more about their school work, click on the image below.


Students have created their own pages on the wiki where they can work alone or together on different topics. We have started by the Parthenon Debate. Should the marbles go back to Greece or stay in British Museum ?

For the moment, it's just the beginning ! Pages will become richer from month to month.

Photos of 19th and 20th America's centuries

On Shorpy, the 100 year-old photo blog, you can travel by pictures in America's space and time.

Its design copies an old newspaper. You can browse using the different galleries, like cities and streetscapes, civil war, education, factories, industry and public works, sports and recreation, World War II and many more !

These few examples will show you its interest !


"Bill Norton, the bathing beach policeman, measuring the distance between knee and bathing suit on woman in Washington, D.C. Col. Sherrell, the Superintendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, issued an order that bathing suits at the Washington bathing beach must not be over six inches above the knee. Photo from the National Photo Company Collection, 1922.""Gen. John F. Hartranft reading the death warrant to the four condemned Lincoln assassination conspirators (Mrs. Surratt, Payne, Herold, Atzerodt) on the scaffold at Fort McNair, Washington. July 7, 1865"


"Worker in bombardier nose section of a B-17F Navy bomber at the Douglas Aircraft plant in Long Beach, Calif. October 1942. The B-17F "Flying Fortress" is a later model of the B-17."


"Celebration on Wall Street upon the news of Germany's surrender in World War I. November 1918."

Thank you to this virtual collegue for the link

The world population growth

These two following websites show you two main features about world population. Click on the images to link.

• its substantial level
  

One person represents one pixel. You'll have to scroll left and right te see how we represent a so tiny fraction of world population !

• its fast-growing
  

See world statistics up-dated live before your eyes ! How many peole born and die every second ?





I found this resources on Geography : My Places and yours. I advice you to visit this amazing blog.

Lesson of Geography in English

Watch this Geography lesson teached to foreigners students in Columbia University. Even if you wonn't learn a lot about Geography, it will be very usefull to know how to use the adjective superlative form, what is very current when comparing differents countries.

This is the second part of this instructive lesson. Check your knowledges at the end !

Democracy in Athens

Click on the image to enlarge

AngliaCampus features interesting and easy-accessfull webpages about Ancient Greece. You'll find out many articles concerning our topic : democracy in Athens, and more about greek civilisation. (food, clothes, religion, soldiers...).

These two following diagrams sums up the lesson ! They should be very usefull !

Click on the image to enlarge

Click on the image to enlarge
Source : Historia del Siglo 20.org

Forest fires in Greece

Flood in England and Switzerland, forest fires in Greece (and many more places in Mediterranean area) : natural hazards stroke Western Europe this summer confirming global warming dangerous effects on population.


"This image of southern Greece shows the widespread impact that recent devastating fires have had on southern Greece. In this kind of satellite image, vegetation appears bright green and burned areas appear brick red. Numerous large burn scars sprawl along the western part of the Peloponnesus Peninsula. Other parts of the country are dotted with burned areas as well."

Source : Nasa Earth Observatory



Since June more than 3,000 fires have razed more than 200.000 hectares of forests and scrubland across the country (nearly triple last year's total), destructed dozens of village and killed 64 persons at the end of August -- according to officials.

On the following pictures, "smoke rises in ancient Olympia, close to the archaeological site in western Peloponnese. An elderly woman cries in front of her burned stable in the Platania village in Peloponnese on Sunday."

Source : CNN

Who does the North Pole belong to ?

This summer, North Pole is the conflict center between bordering Artic ocean countries.

On August 2nd, "Russian explorers have planted their country's flag on the seabed 4,200m (14,000ft) below the North Pole to further Moscow's claims to the Arctic."
"The rust-proof titanium metal flag was brought by explorers travelling in two mini-submarines, in what is believed to be the first expedition of its kind."
"Canada, which also claims territory in the Arctic, has criticised the mission. "This isn't the 15th Century," Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told the CTV channel. "You can't go around the world and just plant flags and say 'We're claiming this territory', he said."

But according to Sergei Balyasnikov, from the Russian Arctic and Antarctic Institute , "It's a very important move for Russia to demonstrate its potential in the Arctic... It's like putting a flag on the Moon".

But why is it so important ?

"Russia's claim to a vast swathe of territory in the Arctic, thought to contain oil, gas and mineral reserves. Several countries with territories bordering the Arctic - including Russia, the US, Canada and Denmark - have launched competing claims to the region. The competition has intensified as melting polar ice caps have opened up the possibility of new shipping routes in the region (the famous North West Passage)."

According to US Geological Survey, 25% of world oil reserves are settled to the North of the Arctic Circle.

What about the international law ?

"The North Pole is not currently regarded as part of any single country's territory and is therefore administered by the International Seabed Authority."

"Current laws grant countries an economic zone of 200 nautical miles beyond their land borders.
This zone can be extended where a country can prove that the structure of the continental shelf is similar to the geological structure within its territory."

That's why it's so important to the Russians to argue with scientific proof ! But others countries are now in the running : Danes expedition is on the way.

Further informations

I found the main informations in this article :

BBC News

Do you know North Pole Conquest History ?

North Pole Wikipedia article

Do you know the IPY ?

The International Polar Year is a large scientific programme focused on the Arctic and the Antarctic from March 2007 to March 2009.

Flood in UK

Heavy rains have caused important floods in UK this summer. On the BBC website, find out a round-up of the situation in the worst-affected areas with an interactive map.

"Has London fallen victim to the latest deluge of rain? These shocking pictures seem to suggest so but don't worry they're just images taken from a new British disaster film." Metro.co.uk

More about this movie.

Want to watch the trailer ?

A few photos of Devon

2007-07-england

South Asia Tsunami

This clip features main informations about 2005 South Asia tsunami.

Click To Play