Mar

30

The Breathing Earth

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Breathing Earth is a site that graphically shows how much carbon dioxide is being produced by countries around the world. It’s quite a neat little project because, as you watch it, you get to see which countries are emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide. The countries took an orangy-red every time they emit 1000 tonnes of CO2.

While that’s interesting, it does have some failings. Since some countries - espcially the US and China - are emitting carbon dioxide at a much faster rate than other countries (according to this simulation) due to their large population and industrial development, one might think we only need to be concerned about the big polluters. Yet it’s not fair to zero in on a few larger countries.

If action needs to be taken on CO2 emissions, smaller countries like Germany or France may well have the same per capita emissions as the US or China. Yet because of their smaller populations, they will turn orangy-red far less frequently than the US or China since they have to build up 1000 tonnes of carbon dioxide before it’s displayed in the simulation.

The simulation does excellently show that a lot of CO2 is going into the air, but it leaves a few questions unanswered which should make for some great classroom discussion.

Mar

26

What’s on the other side of the world?

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They always told me as a kid that if you dug straight down you’d come up on the other side of the world. Somehow, the other side of the world, no matter where I lived, was always in China.

Well, if you want to get a realistic idea of where the other side of the world is relative to you, this neat little application, built on top of Google Maps, claims it can tell you.

Why would you want to know this? Well, the majority of the earth’s surface is water and not dry land, and that dull little fact is nicely illustrated with this application. It seems that when you’re on almost any land, if you dig straight down, you end up in the middle of the ocean. I had never realized that before.

Of course, there are minor problems with digging through the earth’s core, but this is a mapping demonstration and not science fiction.

Mar

21

All old photos

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To get a flavor of the past, there’s nothing quite like seeing it. Shorpy: The 100-Year-Old Photo Blog specializes in old pictures from all over America. With each photo being tagged, it’s pretty easy to find similar photos if you want your students to search for photos on a theme. It’s a very neat collection of photos that promises to grow quite large in the months to come.

Mar

20

Who’s who on Olympus

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Do you have trouble remembering the relationships between the Greek gods? Can’t keep track of them without a scorecard? Is this your lucky day! We have a scorecard of all the Greek gods. All of the family ties are illustrated in this handy dandy, easy to use graphic. Very usefully, it’s also available in PowerPoint format.

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