The B.B.C. has a nice little video piece about the release of Scott’s last letter to his wife, before his death.The family has donated his expedition letters to the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, so that the general public can read and benefit from his writing. News article here.
The Global Warming wagon rolls on with an interesting front page from the Independent and an article about how climate change could potentially impact on Europe.
Also within the paper is an article about exploration of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. The lake is about the size of Yorkshire but underneath the ice sheet, around 3,600 metres of ice, the weight of this has meant that the lake has remained unfrozen; with the exception of the point of contact between the ice sheet and the lake surface. Sealed for over 15 million years, scientists are excited by the prospect of how life has evolved away from contact with solar radiation. Russian scientists have been drilling towards the lake for some time, but there is now a debate about how the final drilling should be completed, so that the lake is not contaminated. Interesting stuff, the newspaper also has a free quit smoking poster!
Finally, read in my free commuter newspaper, the Metro, about a report stating that 500 million people will live in informal housing, shanty towns, by 2030. I discussed this with the year 11’s, this morning, we’re studying LEDC settlements. Basically the result of a number of factors, regional inequality,the pull of a better life in the city, the fact that the youngest people move, and hey, what’s there to do when you’re bored? Lack of education and access to contraception, lack of state welfare systems and the ability of children to contribute to family income via formal/informal employment and you have growing cities…. Nice link to global warming as well.
Also looking forward to getting my hands on an Iphone later in the year. 
. I have another dentist visit tomorrow, but have my world stress ball for the pain! 
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Posted in Extreme Environments, General
Written on Wed, 10 January 2007 at 10:05 pm
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