Monthly Archives: November 2018

They were a people descended from Norse (“Norman” comes from “Norseman”) Vikings from Denmark, Iceland and Norway who first arrived at the mouth of the Seine in 911. In the 10th and 11th centuries, they gave their name to Normandy, … Continue reading →

Largest City and Capital: Dublin (pop 553,165) Area:   84,421 km2       20th Coastline: 2,797km Highest Elevation (Carrauntoohil): 1,041m (3,415′) Population: 6,572,728 (19th). Density 77.8/km2 Languages: English, Irish, Ulster Scots Ethnic Groups: 96.4% White, 1.7% Asian, 1.1% Black, 0.8% Other Time Zone: Greenwich Mean Time Drives: on the left … Continue reading →

The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km, which yielded the first accurate measurement of a meridian. The chain was established and used by the German-born Russian scientist Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve in … Continue reading →

SHIPPING & GREENHOUSE GASES Nov 1st 2018 Economist Shipping is a dirty business. Since the late 19th century, when steam replaced wind as the main means of propulsion, ships have relied on filthy fossil fuels. Coal-fired steam has given way to … Continue reading →

Nov 8th 2018 Economist Diva Amon, a researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, spotted her first whale skull in 2013, during an expedition to the Clarion Clipperton Zone (ccz) in the tropical Pacific. It sat on beige silt, … Continue reading →

REVIVAL OF PORTUGUESE  Nov 8th 2018 ECONOMIST  These days Manuel Machado has a spring in his step. The school of which he is headmaster, Escola Portuguesa de Macau, is the only one in the southern Chinese city that still follows the … Continue reading →

FORCED LABOUR IN COTTON HARVEST Nov 8 2018 ECONOMIST In some ways, there is nothing surprising about the videos that have been doing the rounds on social media in Uzbekistan. In one, farmers and local officials in a district near … Continue reading →

Sky burial is a funeral practice in which a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop to decompose while exposed to the elements or to be eaten by scavenging animals, especially carrion birds. It is a specific type of the general practice of excarnation. It is practiced … Continue reading →

TANA TORAJA is an area best known for its peculiar fascination with the dead. Life for the Torajans revolves around death and their days are spent earning the money to send away their dead properly in elaborate, brutal and captivating … Continue reading →

The Flanders area of Western Wallonian is full of WWII war cemeteries. The Allied cemeteries are common and full of visitors but I was the only person as this German one. After the war, there were 678 German military cemeteries … Continue reading →