Homework - geography

Write definitions:
discharge
lag time
drainage basin
peak rainfall
peak discharge
 

The hydrological cycle

Keywords

Inputs

precipitation (opady) - water in any form that falls from the sky

Transfers

Surface runoff/overland flow (spływ powierzchniowy) - water is not absorbed by soil but flows on the surface

Throughfall - water falling through the leaves 
Stemflow - water flowing through the stems

Infiltration (przenikanie) - the movement of water into the soil

Throughflow - movement of water through the soil

Percolation - when water slowly leaches into the rock

Groundwater flow/base flow - the water that infiltrated flows through the rock

Storage

Surface storage - the water that is stored on the surface in a depression

Interception storage - when plants are storing water on their surface

Vegetation storage - water that is cumulated inside the plant. 

Soil storage - water kept by soil

Groundwater Storage - water stored in rocks  

Channel Storage - water stored in rivers 

Ocean - the biggest body of water, which is salty

Outputs

Evaporation (parowanie) - changing water into water vapor

Transpiration - evaporation of water from plants

Sublimation - water change from ice into gas

other important words:

capacity (zdolność) - amount of water that can move or be stored in a particular place 

permeable (przepuszczalność) - water can move through 

concrete - beton, cement

Eight global warning questions.

What is the definition of global warning?

Global warming is increase of average temperature in the world caused by an excessive amount of carbon dioxide that keeps reflecting rays in the atmosphere which makes the weather hotter. 

What do scientists believe are the effects of global warming?

Scientists believe that global warming will have many bad impacts on the environment. Basic changes that are going to happen will be big flooded areas caused by melting glaciers, such as in the Arctic regions. A lot of animals such as polar bears are going to suffer because of decreasing of the natural surface which used to be their home. Also people who live in the valleys or on the low-lying coast will have to resettle. 

In other parts of the world there is going to be problem with droughts. Hotter temperatures will cause drying of natural water containers and dying from thirst of people, animals and plants. 

Weather is also going to be more unpredictable and variable. A lot of natural disasters such as coastal flooding, hurricanes and twisters will occure.

Climatic zones are also going to change significantly with time.

What do scientists believe are the causes of global warming?
Causes of global warming are 'green-house' gazes such as CO2, CH2, NO2, SO2 mostly producted by factories and cars.

How could global warming affect more economically developed countries?

In MEDCs they have started to have lots of campaigns about rising temperatures affected by global warming and to counteract it. A lot of public transport were replaced by 'ecological' buses, trains, trams that are supposed to emit less carbon dioxide that is related to global changes. Governments are trying to show people how to live more ecologically by making TV campaigns included famous people etc.
Prices are going to rise and zone species are going to change.
Countries will also spend lts of money into defense from flooding instead of improving e.g industry or public health etc. 

How could global warming affect less economically developed countries?

LEDCs are less able to cope with changes. They will suffer more than MEDCs because of having less money to make any step towards this event. 

Poor countries that are mostly related with farming will also suffer a lot because of more costs of taking care of crops. They will also have less fertile land which will affect their lifestyle which is very difficult and will cause even more poverty.

Some people do not believe that global warning is happening. Wh do they think this?
Name some of the things individuals and organization can do to help prevent global warming.
is global warming only negative thing, or could it have some positive impacts.

Elasticity of demand

Demand (popyt) - the quantity of a product that consumers are able and willing to purchase at various prices over a period of time.

elasticity of demand - how demand for particular product can be affected by changes in price. Usually when prices go down demand increases and decreases when prices go up. This concerns things such as cars, appliances and other not so necessary products because we can easily substitute or cancel the purchase. 

E.g if we want to buy a car but the price of it has gone up significantly we can replace it by a car from other brand which has a similar standard but a lower price. 

When it is about necessities as food, medicines and basic clothes demand is inelastic because changes in price doesn't affect demand so much because no matter how much does food cost we will still buy it.

Lateral Thinking

1. The man in the elevator.
A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work or to go shopping. When he returns he takes the elevator to the seventh floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the tenth floor. He hates walking so why does he do it?
Answer:
The man is a dwarf.

2. The man in the bar.
A man walks into a bar and ask the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out the gun and point it at the man. The man says 'thank you' and walks out.
Answer:
The man had hiccups. The barman recognized this from his speech and drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the hiccups - so the man no longer needed the water.

3. Death in a field.
A man is lying dead in a field. Next to him there is an unopened package. There is no other creature in the field. How did he die?
Answer:
The man had jumped from the plane but his parachute had failed to open. It is the unopened package.

4. Anthony and Cleopatra.
Anthony and Cleopatra are lying dead on the floor of  villa in Egypt. Nearby is a broken bowl. There is no mark on either bodies and thy were not poisoned. How did they die?
Answer:
Anthony and Cleopatra were goldfish whose bowl was knocked over by clumsy dog.

5. Trouble wit sons.
A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins. Hw could this be so?
Answer:
They were two of the set of triplets or quadruplets.

6. Push that car. 
A man pushed his car. He stopped when he reached a hotel at which point he knew he was bankrupt. Why?
Answer:
He was playing Monopoly.

7. The blind beggar. 
A bling beggar had brother who died. What relation was the blind beggar to the brother who died if we know brother is not the answer.
Answer:
The blind beggar was the sister of her brother who died.

8. Friday.
A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three night and then left on Friday. How come?
Answer:
The man's horse was called Friday.

Japanese economy

The impact of the earthquake in Japan on the Japanese economy.

• inflation - less supply, prices rise
• exchange rate - this falls which makes imports more expensive 
• government spending - rise, but were would the money come from
• confidence - would be low ex. overseas firms would not invest in the Japanese economy 
• unemployment - will rise because of the radiation. people will not even leave their houses. 

Economist are speculate that earthquake and tsunami has a big influence on Japanese economy and it's pushing the country into recession. So far hundreds of factories are being closed across the Japan and big companies as Toyota, Sony, Nestle, Nissan are having considerable pecuniary loss which greatly affects the economy. Most of them are also selling the dollars and other foreign currencies to prepare for cost of rebuilding domestic economy. 

About 2 million homes are without electricity and about 1,4 million do not have running water. Government estimate losses after disaster for more-less £62 billion. Bank of Japan tries to prevent too much rising of yen as well as it offers help to small banks to make sure they are not run out of the money because in case of such events people are likely to panic and take all savings out of accounts. 

Macroeconomics - repetition

The government has four macro-economics aims:

1. reduce unemployment 

• cut taxes
• create more schools and hospitals
• reduce the exchange rate 
• reduce prices 
• reduce import

1. encourage growth (GDP)
2. increase export and reduce import
3. reduce inflation

There are two main policies:

1. fiscal - using taxes and government expenditure (using taxes)
2. monetary - using interest rates (government spending)  

Prices and products

I've decided to compare the prices of products in three well known supermarkets in Oxford. Because of the fact that they are located close by they are all substitutes for each other. My task is to help you choose one in order to pay less and have high quality products.

There are several factors which affect the price:

- company that sells it (the way that shop looks inside, people who are supposed to buy there)

- company that produces the product

- size

First of all I've experimented on the most common products as e.g. milk, yoghurt, cereals, bread, chicken, fruit such as mandarin, vegetables such as tomatos, olives and M&M's.

Price of organic milk in every shop was different. But it's not a surprise because there are all made in different companies. In M&S (Marks and Spencer) you would have to pay £1.03 which is the most but we also know that the standard of M&S is higher than Tesco and the Co-op. In Tesco it's 86p. and in the Co-op 99p. For a product such as natural yoghurt in M&S you have to pay £1.29, in Tesco £1.25 so there isn't a big difference between this two shops but this time the cheapest price has the Co-op, only 99p. For the famous Cornflakes 500g. in M&S you have to spend £1.98. For 250g. in Tesco and Co-op you pay £1.45 and £1.65 which shows how much cheaper it is to buy big sizes products. In M&S buying organic (so high quality) bread costs £1.29. In Co-op a normal one costs £1.24 and in Tesco ONLY 70p. Of course it is obvious that bread for only 70p. is not so healthy and good for us as e.g. this in Co-op which is maybe not the best but still much better.

For the same amount of chicken you have to pay in Tesco £4, in Co-op £4 and in M&S £5.24 which is quite a big difference. But lets move on to fruit and vegetables. 700g. in M&S cost £2.99 when in Co-op the same size is for £1.30 and in Tesco £1.50. For sure most of people won't choose Marks&Spencer to buying fruits. The prices of vegetables are high there too. For 400g. of tomatoes you have to pay £2.19. which is a lot while we compare the price in the Co-op, for 700g. only £1.30. But for people who prefer to buy in M&S the most I should mention that M&M's are only £1.89 which is cheaper than in Tesco and Co-op (£2.10 in both shops).
Finally the price of olives because in all shops this product of the same company was exactly the same.

Starting a business

Recently I've done some reaserch about two very popular English banks which are supposse to help people to set up a new business.

Headlines of leaflets says: "The best in helping you to become your own boss", but which one really tries to help us the most? I will help you find out.

The first bank I took into consideration, Lloyds, propose us a business manager that you can make an apointment with and that will be on hand to offer you some support and quidance. They advertise: "we've many years experience of helping new businesses and we understand some chalenges you may face". This seem for me to be very important because profecional advices are always very helpfull and can influence to our choices.
I can also mention that this bank has one of the largest branch networks in the UK,  so there should be always one nearby. Appart form this you have 18 months' free business banking which sounds really encouragingly. Even after this period come to an end they still will help you with saving money on bank charges. 

Next positive thing is that they can arrange an insurance by Allianz Insurance plc which will cover the risk that your business faces. This is decision that should be made by everyone because life is unpredictable and it is always better to have an insurance. 

At least I can add that Lloyds offer totally free and easy access to your account so you can control everythink online. 

It's all here: http://www.lloydstsbbusiness.com/support/businessguides/startingup.asp

"We'll help you get started and turn your idea into reality". That is how Barclays, the second bank that I made research about advertise. They propose help in creating the business plan, offer usefull contacts for people that could help and gives some advices how to be a prospective business owner. They stress: "Be realistic; Do something that you enjoy; Know market; Do the costing from the down". This all headlines might sounds trivial but seems to be very helpfull and realistic. 

Barclays can also offer you a money for setting up the business which for me is a big advantage that attracts lots of customers for choosing this bank.

Of course it has an internet accounts so you can check everything online.

Here you are: http://www.barclays.co.uk/StartUpSupport/Startingyourownbusiness/P1242558528795

This is all I could find about this two banks. I hope it's enough.

Today's lesson

I am so excited because we have nearly finished and I have canceled my maths lesson so I have the time free. Just to please my tutor i would like to same that today we discuss the following:

1. mind map for history
2. macro economy policy. this includes the four objectives which are reduce inflation, reduce unemployment, increase GDP, increase export, reduce import
3. there are two main policies: fiscal and monetary
4. yesterday I want to supermarket doing research on products to help me discus elasticity
5. my tutor said I did very well and that praise motivates me which is what HERZBERG said:

Mind mapping

I found this website very interesting: http://www.mindmeister.com/
I thing it might be very useful for people like me who has problems with ogranisation.
But I am not really sure what about this page: https://bubbl.us/

Mind mapping