The Longest Day

In the Northern Hemisphere the longest day of the year falls on 21st June. This day is often referred to as the Summer Solstice or Midsummer’s Day. But why is this day so much longer than average?

As the Earth rotates on its axis, parts of the world move closer to the sun, while the rest moves farther away. It is this tilt which brings it nearer to the Sun that is force behind the solstice. On 21st June the Earth’s axis tilts 23 degrees at the same time as the Sun reaches its highest point of altitude. The result is that, with the exception of the Polar Regions, the Northern Hemisphere experiences the longest period of daylight hours of the year on that day.

In the UK and Europe the longest day is usually 21st June, but due to the curvature of the Earth, the highest altitude of the Sun occurs on a different day in a few locations over the tropics. In areas where the sun is directly overhead (within both the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn) there are two different ‘longest’ days. This is because the Sun crosses directly once on the day before the solstice and once on the day after.

Occasionally the summer solstice falls on June 22nd in Europe; although it is very rare. The last time this happened was 1975 and the next time will be in 2203. This occasional variation of a day, or a few days as you get nearer the equator, is because the earth orbits the sun in an ellipse and not a circle (or sphere), and its orbital speed varies slightly during the year.
The Winter Solstice, or the shortest day, which occurs on the 21st December in the Northern hemisphere, works in the opposite way. The Earth is orbiting at its furthest point from the Sun, and so we experience long periods of dark skies and therefore a shorter day.

The longest day traditionally marks the first day of summer in the UK, just as the 21st December heralds the start of Winter. However, just because the Summer Solstice is the longest day, it does not guarantee that it will be the hottest, or even warm. Traditionally the Summer Solstice has been a time to celebrate the planting and harvesting of crops. This ancient idea is still celebrated by some to this day; most famously commemorated in England by the Druid communities who gather near Stonehenge to watch the sun rise over the Heel Stone.

Many of you who are doing exams this year will be revising or starting to think about revising. As a tutor, I am often asked, “What should I revise?” The answer is, unfortunately, everything that you have covered in the course. No one except the exam writers know what is going to be in the exams in any single year, so always make sure that you cover everything.

Barnaby Lenon, an ex-headmaster at Harrow, has recently written in a blog that GCSE students should revise their course at least three times. The same applies for A level students, but officially there is no magic number given as to how many times you should do so. Usually, however, it will be more than once. Some lucky people, the exceptions, can read something once and it will “go in”, but more will have to go through the course over and over again for it to sink it. We are all different, and this is the main point with revising – what works for one person will not work for another.

With all this in mind, there are some tips below. Remember, some will work for you, some won’t.

• Find a good place to work. Some of you will like quiet, others will like some noise. We all work best in certain places. Some students may like to work in a library, others in their room, others in a coffee shop. Find a place that works well for you and stick to it.

• What time works best for you? Some people work better early in the morning, others in the afternoon, others late at night. Again, stick to what works for you. If you are a night owl, it’s pointless to try and force yourself to get up early and study – it just won’t work as well. Use your strengths and find the best time to suit you.

• Avoid distractions. There are so many distractions today: mobile phones, television, emails and so on. It can make it hard to study. If you are reading this now but also looking at your social media feed on your phone, for example, it’s doubtful all you are reading will go in. So avoid such distractions if you can. Turn off your phone. Turn off your emails. If you find it hard to do this, give yourself a time limit, “I will revise for one hour, then spend five minutes looking at my phone.”

• With the above point also in mind, some students find it hard to sit down and study for long periods. Others prefer it. Again, you should do what suits you best. If you do find it hard to sit for long periods, give yourself a reward. One student I worked with played volleyball at national level. He found it very hard to sit down for long periods and study. Consequently he was doing hardly any revision. We came up with a plan. He would revise for 50 minutes, then go outside and play with a ball or go for a jog for ten minutes. Then he would revise for 50 minutes again and so on. This worked well for him. You may find a similar reward works for you, looking at your phone, going for a walk, making a cup of tea, watching TV, phoning a friend and so on. Decide on your time limit and give yourself a reward.

• Aim to study for no more than two and a half hours without taking a break. You are probably not revising as well as you would if you carry on revising after that time.

• Making and reading notes and using flashcards can all work well for some students. Others can make recordings of their notes and listen back to them when they are going for a walk or even when they are sleeping at night – Mind maps and memory palaces can also be useful when revising. Again, find a method that works well for you and stick to it.

• If you are reading something and it isn’t sinking in or you don’t understand it. Try a few of the following techniques…
o Read it out loud. When you do this, sometimes it seems to make more sense.
o Try and explain it to someone else – You may find that you know far more than you think you do when you explain it to another person.
o Read it in another way. There are a lot of resources online today, so if you don’t understand your notes or textbook, look online and find another explanation.

• Making a revision timetable for when you intend to revise your subject is also useful. You may be revising for more than one subject, so work out when you are going to study and make a plan for each subject.

• Practice exam papers and old TMAs under “exam conditions.”

• Try to take off a day a week. You decide which day. Take some time off from all that studying.

• Try to start revising as soon as you can. The earlier you start to revise, the more revision you will do.

Remember, you have revised before. You know what has worked well for you and what didn’t. So if you have a good way of revising, stick to it. But if your way hasn’t worked so well, why not try another option from those listed above? There is also of course a lot of advice out there online and in books. The best way to revise is the way that works for YOU! So find your best method and stick to it.

Finally, though success in them is all about your hard work and revision, I am still going to wish you this – Good luck with your exams!

We’re in winter now, and some of us may be feeling the chill. But it could be worse. It has been worse. And it will be worse again…

Throughout Earth’s 4.5 billion years, there have been five big ice ages, some of which lasted hundreds of millions of years. The most recent major ice age occurred in the Pleistocene period, about 2.6 million years ago, and lasted until about 11,700 years ago. Researchers are still trying to understand how often these periods of deep winter happen and how soon we can expect another one.

Across various periods of time, a quarter of our planet’s history has been held in the grip of a major ice event.. In between these ice ages, there have also been many smaller ice ages called glacials, and therefore some warmer periods, called inter-glacials.

The last mini ice age, which scientists call the Maunder Minimum, plunged the northern hemisphere into a series of bitterly cold winters between 1645 and 1715. It was caused by incredibly low solar activity. During the Maunder Minimum, the River Thames froze solid. The ice was so thick that the people of London could walk or skate from one side to the other without needing a bridge (as depicted above). However, although the winters were much colder than average, they were not life-threatening as they would have been in a ‘big’ ice age; If the citizens of the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth century could survive the extreme cold without any form of central heating, then the next mini ice age will not be deadly for the human race.

It is a steady, severe drop in levels of sunshine that brings on a mini ices age. Solar expert Piers Corbyn, of forecasting group WeatherAction, warned that the Earth faces another mini ice age. “We are now in a decline of solar activity… This can cause a shift in the jet-stream, making it move further south and as a result it turns very cold in temperate latitudes including Europe, Britain and North America. We are anticipating temperatures to drop leading to ocean water freezing and ice drifts washing up around the coasts in Europe – we expect the next mini ice age.”

Corbyn and his colleagues have predicted that between now and 2020, the decrease in sun spots will continue. This fall in temperature will trigger the next Solar Minimum, which scientists think could last approximately 15 years. Work by the UK’s Met Office goes on to report however, that the effect of this mini ice age will be offset by an increase in global warming. This means that, rather than being faced with rivers that are frozen from top to bottom, and harsh temperatures that will keep us huddled around the fire, we will merely have to face winters that are much colder than we have become used to- so don’t rush out and buy those ice skates just yet.

At the present time, one of the worst storms in American history, Tropical Storm Harvey (seen below at full strength), is laying waste to east Texas. It also generated the worst hurricane to hit Texas in fifty years and is  causing unprecedented flooding in the city of Houston. The neighbouring state of Louisiana is also beginning to feel its effects. Harvey, which made first landfall as a category 4 hurricane, has brought flash floods and extreme winds across the land; claiming lives, destroying the environment, and damaging the long term economy. Tropical storms can include hurricanes as was originally the case here, or cyclones and typhoons, or a combination of all three. With them comes heavy rainfall, mudslides, and floods.

As tropical storms need intense heat in which to form, they only occur either just to the north or south of the equator, where the sea temperatures can reach up to 27ºC. Generating where the air above a warm sea rises, it is this combination of temperature between the water and the sky that causes the sort of atmospheric low pressure which can spark a tropical storm.

When superheated air rises, it begins to spin, forming the eye of a forthcoming storm. Once that air has risen it cools rapidly, condensing into massive clouds. Compacted air within these clouds creates areas of intense low pressure. In turn, that low pressure sucks at the air around it, creating incredibly strong winds. Only when the storm blows inland, where the air and ground cover are cooler still, do these major weather events begin to blow themselves out.

To make storm weather data easier to track and record accurately for future meteorologists and historians, tropical storms are given names. These names are alphabetical and alternate between male and female. It means that the next tropical storm in America will be given a female name beginning with the letter ‘I’.

Due to the erratic nature of the air pressure near the equator, it is very difficult to accurately predict the path a tropical storm will take. This means that evacuating people and livestock from a threatened area is not easy. For example, when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August 2005, over 1,800 people died and 300,000 homes were destroyed before the area could be completely evacuated.

The social impact on an area hit by a tropical storm can often be major and long term. Power is often cut, with vast populations being left without electricity for many weeks, if not months after the storm has passed. Homes have to be abandoned and many will be destroyed entirely. Mass migration from the affected area leaves entire communities temporarily, or permanently, homeless. Neither is it certain that affected communities will return entirely. In fact it is more probable that a significant number will not. It is estimated that around 50,000 of the population left or did not return to New Orleans after Katrina. What will happen to Houston remains to be seen.

As well as homes, businesses, towns, farms and power stations are all vulnerable to destruction. The looting of abandoned homes and shops can also come from criminal and desperate locals alike. On a national level, resources such as petrol can’t be taken safely into a hurricane hot spot, which means fuel prices rise, as does the cost of food and clean water. Houston will be a prime example, as it produces a great quantity of the oil America runs on, let alone exports. Tourists also stop coming to the area, and as most places on the equator rely heavily on tourists from countries with cooler climates, the economic impact can be extreme. An industrial city like Houston might not feel this, but New Orleans certainly did.

If a tropical storm burns itself out quickly, then the environmental, social and economic costs can be quickly mitigated. When storms of the ferocity of Hurricanes Katrina and Harvey hit, however, the costs are far higher- and can take decades to overcome.

To obtain the best grade when writing a project, report, or dissertation, a student should make sure they read as many related books, articles, and periodicals as possible.

In order to show your tutor the resources you have used to gain an understanding of your subject, all the documents you’ve read should be listed at the end of your work in the form of a bibliography.

So that you don’t forget which sources you have read once you get to the end of your study, it is a good idea to jot down the details of each item you’ve read as you go. You will need to make sure that you have details of the work’s full title, the author, place of publication, publisher, and the date of publication.

A bibliography should be written in alphabetical order and split into sections, beginning with books, then periodicals, and finally online resources (check with your tutor to make sure he or she prefers this standard format or if they like to have online resources listed first).

Below are some examples of how to reference different types of study material.

Books

Author’s surname, Initial, Title, (City of publication, Publisher, Date).
E.g., Kane, J., Another Cup of Coffee, (Cardiff, Accent Press, 2013)

Periodicals and Magazines

Author’s surname, Initial, ‘Article Title,’ Name of magazine. Volume number if applicable, (Date) page numbers.
E.g., Bellamy, J., ‘The Coterel Gang: An Anatomy of a Band of Fourteenth Century Crime’, English Historical Review Vol. 79, (1964), pp.1-39

Encyclopaedia

Encyclopaedia Title, Edition Date. Volume Number, “Article Title,” page numbers.
E.g., The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1997. Vol 7, ‘Gorillas’, pp.50-51

Blog via the Internet

Author of blog, (Date). Subject of message. Electronic conference or bulletin board (Online). Available e-mail address if given.
E.g., Jenny Kane, (September 22, 2014). The Story Behind Another Cup of Coffee, http://jennykane.co.uk/blog/the-story-behind-another-cup-of-coffee/

WWW: Author, Web Address
E.g., Oxford Open Learning, http://www.ool.co.uk/

Diwali (Dīvali, Dīpāwali, or Deepavali), is the Hindu festival of light. One of the most popular of all the South Asian religious celebrations, Diwali begins on the 15th day of the month of Kartika in the Hindu calendar, and is extended over five days. This year it will be celebrated on 23rd October.

The observance of Diwali honours Rama-Chandra, the seventh incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. It is believed that on this day Rama returned, victorious, to his people after 14 years of battling the demon king, Ravana.

To celebrate Rama’s success, Hindu’s light up their houses to declare the victory of good over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. Light, in the guise of fireworks, lamps, candles and bonfires, is used to symbolise the festival. The word “Deepawali” itself means “a row or cluster of lights.” In India oil lamps are often floated across the river Ganges. It is regarded as a good omen if the lamp travelled across the river without sinking.

Alongside the lifting of spiritual darkness by Rama, the goddess Lakshmi (who symbolizes wealth, happiness and prosperity), is also worshipped during the Diwali festivities. Hindu’s believe that Lakshmi roams the earth during Diwali, entering every house that is pure, clean, and bright. Consequently, during Diwali homes are spring cleaned, candles are lit in windowsills, and assorted temptingly aromatic sweets and savouries are baked. Sometimes windows and doors of homes are left open so that Lakshmi can come in.

Hindu’s dress in their finest clothes for Diwali, and sometimes the women have their palms decorated with mehendi. This is a temporary henna decoration, which looks a little like an intricate tattoo.

Diwali is the most publically celebrated Hindu festival within the UK. Hinduism is the second largest non-Christian religious society in Britain, with more than half a million Hindus comprising one percent of the total population. In many towns and cities such as Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leicester, Diwali is celebrated with firework displays, dances, plays, street lighting, lanterns, traditional Indian food, the exchanging of gifts and the playing of music.
The Times of India sums up the modern meaning of Diwali: “Regardless of the mythological explanation one prefers, what the festival of lights really stands for today is a reaffirmation of hope, a renewed commitment to friendship and goodwill, and a religiously sanctioned celebration of the simple – and some not so simple – joys of life.”

It is estimated (Linguistics 2011, 2012) that before the arrival of Columbus in America, 350 languages were spoken in Mexico and Central America, and 1450 in South America. At that time, a significant part of the world’s languages were indigenous American languages. Nowadays, that number is far reduced. So what has become of them?

Today’s linguistic reality in the region, says Russ Rymer (2012), is very different; numerous Native American languages have become extinct, especially those formerly isolated in the Amazon. Some of the survivors are lucky enough to hold official status, along with Spanish. This is the case of Quechua in Peru and Bolivia; Aymara in Bolivia and Guarani in Paraguay, Bolivia and the Argentine province of Corrientes. However, centuries of stigmatism and racist policies against indigenous communities have had a devastating effect on many native languages between the younger generations, overpowering most attempts at preservation.

In other cases, external assistance has made a huge difference when it comes to revitalising a language. The Seri people of Mexico were fortunate when the American linguistics experts Edward and Mary Beck Moser moved to their community in 1951 in order to study their language, Cmiique Iitom. Their work with the Seri has since continued to help raise the number of Cmiique Itiom speakers and now it is estimated to be between 650 and 1000. Today the language has its own dictionary, started by the Mosers and finished by their daughter and her husband, Steve Marlett – himself a linguistic who continues work on the topic, and who has published several papers on it.

Other initiatives such as the campaign from the organization of Cultural Survival http://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/elc/program are considered an excellent way to revive the Native American languages. These could be extended to all Latin America countries and be effectively supported by local and regional authorities and governments, as well as institutions like UNESCO. The promotion of teaching and learning native languages in schools, of valuing and rewarding bilingualism between regional populations, could be another way of preserving them, along with a compiling of the grammar and vocabulary of those that are simply spoken languages.

It is known that many Latin American countries have other important, pressing issues such as political corruption, economic recovery, social inequality and poverty, environmental problems and more, and at times it may seem trivial to be concerned about old languages. Perhaps that is part of the problem. If so, this is a shame, because unlike all its problems, South and Central America’s languages are disappearing fast.

We should ask ourselves, do we wish to hold to the romantic idea of Native American languages as part of the heritage of the pre-Columbus era and simply keep them as a legacy of a lost world? Should we be pragmatic and recognise that a language is born, evolves according to the needs of its speakers and eventually, when it has no means of communication anymore, dies and disappears? Or instead, do we believe that the vanishing of these indigenous languages, far from being a triumph of Spanish, Portuguese or English, would be a sad signature of our modern world, a failure to ourselves, and probably a future source of regret for their loss, when it is too late for even more languages.

If you found this subject interesting, below are some references to source material.

References:
• Cultural Survival non-profit, human rights organisation, http://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/elc/program
• Linguistics 201: Native American Languages, http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test3materials/Native_American%20Langs.htm appeared on 27 June 2013.
• Rymer, Russ (July 2012) , Varnishing Languages, National Geographic magazine http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/vanishing-languages/rymer-text

 

By Itziar Simo Arroyo

Itziar is a Spanish tutor with Oxford Home Schooling

The Roman Empire was so large by 100BC that it bordered all of the Mediterranean Sea and stretched across most of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, right as far as the Red Sea.

Britain first came to the attention of the Romans after they conquered France (Gaul). Having heard about the rich supplies of cloth, tin, corn, gold and slaves Britain had to offer, the governor of Gaul, Julius Caesar, wanted to expand the Empire across the Channel.

In August 55BC, Caesar, with 10,000 men, including cavalry soldiers, landed on the English coast, near Dover in Kent. The journey across the English Channel had been rough, and on arrival the troops were travel weary, with many of their ships damaged. Greeted by armed and resistant locals, the Romans faced fierce fighting against the Britons almost immediately, and were forced to retreat.

One year later, in 54BC the Caesar and his Roman troops made a second invasion attempt. This time they were better prepared, and quickly moved inland, taking control of the hill-fort at Bigbury, near Canterbury, Kent.

In 54BC all the tribes of the Britons were under the control of the Catuvellauni tribe, which was headed by chief Cassivellaunus, and was based near modern-day St Albans, just north of the River Thames.

As the well organised Roman legions marched ever nearer, crossing first the River Medway and then the Thames itself, they forced the Britons to submit to them along the way. However, before Caesar had time to develop structure and the Roman way of life upon the newly capitulated southern Britons, a revolt against the Romans in Gaul, combined with a civil war in Rome itself, meant he had no choice but to withdraw his army.

It would be another hundred years, in AD43, before the Romans made a further attempt to capture Britain. Emperor Claudius sent 40,000 men, under the control of Aulus Plautius, across the Channel, but again the legionaries were fought back by the Britons.

It wasn’t until AD44 that Emperor Claudius himself organised and headed a successful invasion of Britain. Though this settlement would ultimately fail as well, the Romans left an indelible mark on our country, as can be seen in numerous towns and features (and museums) today. Examples include Bath Spa in Somerset, Chester in Cheshire, the Dolaucothi gold mines in south west Wales and Hadrian’s wall along the border with Scotland.

Rivers begin life as a trickle of water that originates high on a hillside or in a mountain range. Most of these thin runs of water, known as headwaters, emerge through the earth from underground streams. These submerged bodies of water are formed when rain or snow seeps into the ground, before the pressure of being trapped underground bubbles it back to the surface. This water is called surface run-off.

The course of a fledgling river’s surface run-off is steered by gravity, which will initially send the water flowing downhill in trickles, which will eventually meet with other parallel rills or tributaries, as it gathers momentum. Once these parallel rills unite, they form a stream. When more rills converge with the stream, a bigger flow of water is formed; a brook.

Guided by gravity and the surrounding geology, the brook flows on through the valley, its volume of water swelling with rain and groundwater. The brook becomes wider as it travels, and as its water level rises, it becomes a river.

It isn’t the weight of the moving water alone that dictates how wide or deep a new river is to become. It is the river’s load which will gorge out its path in the geology that surrounds it. A river’s load will include any rocks, stones, and other large particles, which wash along the new riverbed. As the river water pushes its load along, the bed of the river will deepen.

The speed of the moving water determines how quickly the load will erode the river’s banks, and how wide the river will become. As the river winds through the landscape, it carves out deep valleys in solid rock and deposits huge amounts of debris on either side of it.

Not all springs, brooks and streams that form into headwaters on high ground will become rivers. Many will remain small creeks, brooks, rivulets or tributaries. Those that do become rivers will forge their way through the geology of the earth until they reach, and sometimes merge with, other rivers, and then ultimately meet the sea.

The Earth’s crust is made up of huge slabs called plates. These massive plates fit together rather like a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes these plates move, and the friction that action causes, can lead to both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

A volcanic eruption occurs when the pressure and high temperatures beneath the plates cause rocks to melt. This melted rock turns into a liquid known as magma (or molten rock), which seeps through the Earth’s crust, before gradually making its way up to the top of the volcanic mountain, and eventually form into rivers of magma that brim beneath a volcano’s surface.

The pressure in this magma chamber fills and builds, like water and steam in a boiling kettle. It is when this pressure reaches breaking point that the eruption occurs. Gases and rock shoot up through the opening in the top of the mountain, spilling over its edge. The moment magma reaches the top of the volcano it becomes lava, which flows down the sides of the volcano.

The lava flows are only part of the devastating effects of a magma explosion. As the air around the volcano blast fills with lava fragments, hot ash adds to the lava flow, as well as sparking mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods.

The most powerful volcanoes release a pyroclastic flow. This is a fluid mixture of solid to semi-solid boiling hot fragments that include expanding gases, which cascades down the sides of a volcano. Volcano eruptions can also trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, and rock falls.

There are three recognised stages of volcanic action. They are either active, dormant, and extinct. An active volcano is one which has recently erupted and there is a possibility that it may erupt soon. A dormant volcano has not erupted in a long time, but there is a possibility it might erupt in the future. An extinct volcano is one which has erupted thousands of years ago and will never erupt again.

There are more than 1500 active volcanoes on the Earth. Another 80 have been discovered under the ocean, and there are believed to many more hidden beneath its waves. The world’s largest, active volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii. It is 13,677 feet above sea level, and from its base below sea level to its summit, Mauna Loa is taller than Mount Everest.