NEW ACCURATE-SIZED WORLD MAP APPROVED BY THE UN

 

Info by BBC:

Thomas Mukhwana,Africa correspondent,and

Wycliffe Muia 

The UN General Assembly has voted to replace the traditional world map with one that more accurately reflects the size of Africa.

The "Correct the Map" resolution, sponsored by Togo and backed by African Union (AU) members, passed with the support of 164 nations, including France and the UK. The US was the only nation to vote against it - while there were six abstentions.

The UN vote is non-binding but will see changes to the maps used by institutions around the world.

The Mercator map, which has been in common use since the 16th Century, has come in for criticism as it shows Africa as being of similar in size to Greenland, even though it is actually 14 times larger.

The Mercator map was designed in 1569 by the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to help European explorers navigate across the world.

The distortion of his map is a result of the fact that it is impossible to accurately represent the surface of a globe on a two-dimensional chart.

+ info @ The Guardian:

UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale

[11thCW] BRITAIN & THE SEA: BASIS OF ITS TRADE AND EMPIRE

Including a short documentary about what the sea has meant to Britain in its history.

Video:

This animated map video describes the development of the United Kingdom's colonial empire due to its unchallenged command of the seas..

LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! ENJOY THE HOLIDAYS! (EUROPEAN HOLIDAY MAPS)

Today's our last day of school this course. Congratulations to all who have done well in the exams! Good luck for those who have to resit in September! Meanwhile, enjoy the summer holidays!

We close down for this season.

Holiday maps: how many weeks do school holidays last throughout Europe?
Check this map to see Summer Holiday duration in each European country:

The following map shows the total week holidays of the whole school year in each country:

ST. VALENTINE 2019: HOW TO SAY 'I LOVE YOU' AROUND EUROPE

BRITISH ISLES vs UK vs REPUBLIC OF IRELAND vs GREAT BRITAIN vs IRELAND

2019, READY?

CHRISTMAS GIFT-BRINGERS OF EUROPE

This map shows who brings the gifts in each and every country around Europe.

EU TO STOP TIME SHIFTING

This weekend will be changing the time again, we'll have one extra hour to sleep... Previously this summer, there has seen controversy throughout Europe to stop shifting time in Spring and Autumn. It's said that March 2019 will see the last time shift as Governments consider this change has more disadvantages, specially in people's health, than benefits in saving energy. Not changing the time will mean that each country will have to opt for one of the time patterns (Winter's or Summer's) and some like Spain will also have to consider in adapting its time to our appropriate time zone or not.

+ info:

Spain to Shift an Hour 

Back to Get Rid of 

Hitler Time

Video THESE ARE THE WORLD'S STANGEST TIME ZONES:

THE LITERAL TRANSLATION OF COUNTRY NAMES

LONDON TRAIN STATION DEPENDING ON YOUR ORIGIN OR DESTINATION.

This map shows you by the different colours which London railway station you have to arrive to or leave from depending on your origin or destination, respectively.

EUSTON if you travel to or from the Western England, Scotland and North Wales. (Glasgow,  Blackpool, Liverpool, Manchester)

MARYLEBONE if you travel from or to a small area of Northeast London.

PADDINGTON if you travel from or to South Wales, Somerset. (Cardiff, Bristol, Oxford, Reading)

WATERLOO if you travel from or to the South West: Devon & Cornwall. (Plymouth, Exeter, Southampton)

VICTORIA if you travel from or to the central South coast (Portsmouth, Brighton)

LONDON BRIDGE if you travel from or to the South West coast (Canterbury, Dover)

FENCHURCH STREET if you travel to or from East Anglia.

KINGS CROSS if you travel to the Eastern England & Scotland (Edinburgh, Leeds, Hull)

St PANCRAS if you travel from or to the Midlands & the Eurostar train to/from the continent (Paris & Brussels).

23rd APRIL, BOOK'S DAY: SOME SUGGESTIONS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

On the 23rd of April, commemorating St. George's Day and Book's Day, here are some suggestions on English books and authors to read.

BREXIT STARTS TODAY

The moment Theresa May's letter is handed in to Europe Council's president Donald Tusk by Tim Barrow.

Today, March 28th, is the day Brexit starts, and this is how the British newspaper THE GUARDIAN has shown its front page. Below the video of the Prime Minister Theresa May's statement on the Article 50.

Video:

SANTA TRACKER

During the last years Google has given the world the gift of the Santa Tracker.  In the days leading up to Christmas Eve the website gives children of all ages fun activities that range from printable Christmas tree ornaments, interactive games, geography quizzes and even lessons oncoding.

On Christmas Eve the Santa Tracker itself goes live and you can then begin to track Santa’s progress across the world on your computer or mobile device.  You can also search for Santa directly in Google Maps or at Google.com to see where he is at and where he’s headed next. Take a look:

Link: Santa Tracker.

BEST SPEAKING ENGLISH COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD 2016

This recent map (2016 rankings) shows the countries that speak the best English (as second language) around the world. 

This colour shows the ones that have very high proficiency, being the Netherlands, followed by the four Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway & Finland) to complete the top 5.

This colour shows the countries with a high level of proficiency (positions 8 to 20), where Germany, Switzerland and Portugal can be found.

Moderate proficiency is shown with this colour, where India is included and also Spain (position 25), just above Italia & France (positions 28 & 29, respectively.

Low proficiency's colour is orange and Iraq closes the list as the worst.
+ info link.
Previous ranking maps with only European countries or worldwide were published HERE & HERE, last year and we can see that some countries have changed positions: Netherlands up to nº1 while Sweden down to nº3.

FRIENDLIEST COUNTRIES

Here's a map that shows the countries where it's easier to make friends and the countries where it isn't. The best are the greenest, the worst the reddest. Spain's amoung the first and the UK among the latter.

+ info:

The best and worst countries in the world for making friends

Posted 2 months ago by Louis Doré in news

PLAYING WITH TIME AGAIN

Once again, we'll be changing the hour, on this occasion one hour backwards to adapt to winter. Here's a video that shows how night and day follow each other in winter throughout Europe.

For more info on daylight saving time, click to a previous post HERE.

Video:

HOW LONDON WAS CREATED

Bringing you a video that shows how London was created and developed throughout the years.

Video "HOW LONDON WAS CREATED"

Video "THE LONDON EVOLUTION":

THE MAP OF THE LANGUAGES STUDIED AROUND THE WORLD

Here's the map of the languages which are studied around the world, according to Duolinguo, which is an app for language learning.
- English is the most studied language worldwide in 116 of the 194 countries, as you can see that most of the map is green.
- Although French is studied in more countries, Spanish is studied by more people around the world.
- It's weird that Swedish is the most studied language in Sweden. It's because of the high rate of immigration.

INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

Here's a map of the current geographical distribution of the different branches of Indo-European languages throughout Europe & Asia.

TERRORIST VICTIMS AROUND THE WORLD

After last week's terrorist attacks in Paris and Mali, here's a map that shows the number of victims in terrorist attacks last year around the world, according to the Global Terrorism Index released last Tuesday.

Boko Haram is the most dangerous terrorist group in the world. Set in northern Nigeria, this group killed more than 6.600 people last year. The IS group came second killing a little more than 6.000 people. Both these terrorist groups are responsible for more than half the deaths (51%) by terrorism in the most deadly year in history, with an 80% rise in comparison to the previous year.

32.654 people died last year in terrorist attacks, (nine times more victims than in 2000). 80% of these attacks occur in only five countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria & Siria.

+ info: Global Terrorism Index 2015.

Galician version of this post @ ArquivosDoTrasno.