Sunday, June 28, 2009

SS3.3.1 Conflict in Sri Lanka

Admin
  1. Check holiday assignment SEQ for both SA1 papers.
  2. Check notes for on Sri Lanka & Northern Ireland.
Sri Lanka
  1. Lecture slides can be downloaded here.
  2. Chapter outline can be found here.
  3. Assignment focus: SBQ Inference.
  4. Trace the latest development in the interactive below:

SS4.3.1 SA1 & Venice Review

Admin
  1. Check SEQs assignments for both papers.
  2. Check SBQ reliability questions for SS1b. and 1d. and WH1c.and 1d. (for those whose CR was not accepted). Bring your both SA1 question papers and scripts.
  3. Check for notes on Venice and End of Communism.
Venice
  1. Review chapter content. Slides and Worksheets can be download here.
  2. Try this quiz.

Goodbye to the holidays - Tso Moriri 360


and an overflight of the western himalayas/karakorom range

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Hemis and Thiksay

Thiksay novicesThiksay Puja

Tso Moriri

Military convoy at the Indo-Tibetan border
a salt-water lake at 4595mPashima goats
Karzok village by the Tso Moriri
Overnight sub-zero temperate

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sarchu

the last petrol station on the 450km Manali-Leh road

how to cross the river? the indians have their discussions.

overnight in tents at the border of Himacha Pradesh & Jammu Kashmir.

Dawn breaks in Sarchu (altitude: 4890m)

Taglangla: the second highest motorable road (5328m). The highest is Khardungla (5680m) on the road from Leh to the Nubra Valley.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Manali


Hippies come here for the hash
Where's everyone going? (the Pir Panjal Range)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Kullu Valley

From Chandigadh (Haryana/Punjab) to Kullu (Himacha Pradesh)

Dhaba Shop

Kullu is Valley of the Gods

Monday, June 22, 2009

How to go Leh?

The Manali-Leh road connects Manali in Himachal Pradesh to Leh in Ladakh, Jammu Kashmir. For SS students, Ladakh district administers the part of Aksai Chin claimed by India. It is open only between June and mid-September when snow is cleared from the road by the Border Roads Organisation. It connects the Manali valley to Kullu valley, Lahaul and Spiti and Ladakh. It crosses some of the highest mountain passes in the world, including Rohtang La (3,978 m, 13,050 ft), Baralacha La (4,892 m, 16,050 ft), Lachulung La (5,059 m, 16,600 ft) and Taglang La (5,325 m, 17,470 ft).

View Manali-Leh in a larger map

Monday, June 15, 2009

Oil Rise

The price of oil has hit $70 rising sure and steadfast from a low of $40 in Feb. This is astounding as the world is still in recession. How much will the price of oil be when economic recovery comes? Scary?

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The influenza pandemic of 1918

The current swine flu outbreak is of the same strain, H1N1, as the great flu pandemic of 1918. Find out more below. What would we do without history?

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Singapore most liveable city in S-E Asia: Survey

Ok, we're used to covering purpose by analysing who said what to whom, when, where and for what. Here's another dimension to uncovering purpose: spin headlines. These findings are not stuff for celebration but the editors have put the positive spin to the content by re-defining the benchmark. In a global survey, Singapore is supposedly doing well by narrowing the competition and confining your comparisons. In fact, google the same survey and you will find only the local media captioned this survey with this headline. Why? You tell me!

LONDON: Singapore is among the four most liveable cities in Asia - after Osaka, Tokyo and Hong Kong - and ranks 54th worldwide, according to the latest assessment of 140 cities by the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Canadian and Australian cities did well in the assessment, taking six of the top 10 spots in the rankings, which were based on ratings assigned to 30 factors across five broad categories - stability, health care, education, infrastructure, culture and environment.

US cities were well down the list. Pittsburgh, which ranked highest among US cities, was in 29th place. New York at No.56 was two notches below Singapore.

Singapore, top among South-east Asian nations, scored 88.5, putting it ahead of Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta, which came in 79th and 123rd, respectively.

The highest-ranked Asian cities in the list were Japan's Osaka (13th) and Tokyo (joint 19th with Frankfurt, Germany), Hong Kong (an equal 39th with Madrid, Spain), Singapore (54th) and Seoul, South Korea (58th). The lowest-ranked city in South-east Asia was Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which came in 128th.

Top-ranked Vancouver scored 98, benefiting from strong infrastructure, while Harare languished with just 37.5 'thanks to the unfolding crisis in Zimbabwe'.

A string of US cities filled the rankings from 30th to 50th position - Washington D.C. in 35th place, Los Angeles in 48th - followed by another smattering of European conurbations: London in 51st spot, Rome 52nd, while Athens was given Western Europe's lowest showing in 63rd spot.

Lower down the list came Moscow in 69th spot, Beijing in 76th, Johannesburg - which shared a joint 92nd spot with Brazil's Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo - and Bangkok in 100th place.

The bottom rankings were occupied by a swathe of Asian and African cities: Manila in 108th, New Delhi in joint 114th spot with Cairo, Mumbai in 120th, Nairobi in 122nd and Lusaka, Zambia in 126th.

Cities scoring below 50 which 'present daily challenges to living standards', the study noted, included Teheran, Iran, in 129th place; Karachi, Pakistan in 135th; and Lagos, Nigeria, in 136th.

Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, Algiers in Algeria, and Dhaka in Bangladesh rounded off the list at the bottom. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Sunday, June 07, 2009

The Fear of Nuclear Proliferation

Why is the world so upset about North Korea's nuclear ambitions? History has the answers.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Welcome to YOUR holidays!

Now that YOUR holidays are finally here, have a good break and get your needed rest. The rest will take care of itself. Don't understand? Check out these slides. And sleep on it.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Open-Four-times champion Nadal shown the exit

PARIS, May 31 (Reuters) - Four-times champion Rafael Nadal was knocked out in the fourth round of the French Open on Sunday, beaten 6-2 6-7 6-4 7-6 by Sweden’s Robin Soderling in one of the biggest shocks ever seen at Roland Garros.

The world number one, who was seeking a record fifth successive title, had taken a 31-0 record into the contest as he had not lost a match at the claycourt grand slam since his Paris debut in 2005.

Soderling paid little attention to the script as he brought the world number one down on his knees in a 3-1/2 hour tussle.

“I have to accept with the same calm when I win than when I lose. After four years, I lose here, and the season continues,” a gracious Nadal told a news conference.

“This is not a tragedy, losing here in Paris. It had to happen one day.”

Nadal, who had thrashed Soderling 6-1 6-0 in Rome last month, said he could not keep his nerve in the moments of the match.

“Sure, he did well. He did very well but I didn’t play my best tennis. I didn’t play my tennis, and for that reason I lose. That’s it,” he said.

“I was not calm enough to face the important points, so I had to fight. But sometimes fighting is not enough. You have to play a good level of tennis.

“Sometimes people think I win because I’m physically fit, but, no. When I win, it’s because I play well, and that wasn’t the case today.”

JUBILANT SODERLING

Soderling, seeded 23rd, was jubilant.

“I told myself this is just another match,” said the jubilant 23rd seed, who will next face either Nadal’s fellow Spaniard, 10th seed Fernando Verdasco, or Russian Nikolay Davydenko.

“All the time, I was trying to play as if it was a training session. When I was 4-1 up in the tiebreak, I started to believe.

“I tried to keep telling myself I had to believe. I played a great match. If he thinks he plays bad, that’s his choice.”

It seemed as if Nadal’s left arm had shortened overnight as the Spaniard often failed to retrieve his opponent’s groundstrokes in a one-sided first set.

Soderling broke in the third game when Nadal scooped the ball long and did it again in the eighth to seal the set after moving the Spaniard from left to right.

Nadal broke for 2-1 in the second set, firing a backhand from behind the baseline that Soderling failed to control.

Soderling broke back for 5-5 with a diving volley winner, forcing Nadal to a tiebreak which the Spaniard easily took 7-2.

The top seed was not out of trouble, though, as it was not enough to break the Swede’s resilience.

Soderling broke in the seventh game of the third set when Nadal’s attempted lob went long.

He then held serve confidently and took the set when Nadal netted a forehand. The Spaniard closed his eyes as if he refused to believe what was happening.

Following an early exchange of breaks, both players held serve to take it to another tiebreak. A string of Nadal unforced errors earned Soderling a 6-1 lead.

The Spaniard saved the first match point with a forehand winner down the line but he volleyed wide on the second.