Inquiry-based science education owes its existence to America, where it originated, but the US is also facing an uphill battle in selling science to the masses. In June this year Lisa Coico, President of the City College of New York, said that she was concerned about the dearth of American high school students wanting to major in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The goal is to enrol 25, engineering students by — twice the current number of students signing up.
It all helps. As a company which needs a continuous supply of highly-skilled, highly disciplined employees, INEOS cannot afford to ignore the problem.
Nor is it. Others are also driving home the message that science is cool. Elise Andrew launched website www. In science every question answered leads to two more. What crisis? In China became the largest Patent office in the world with , applications being filed, compared to the USA which in the same year filed some , applications.
And the gap continues to widen. Electric cars are nothing new. Thomas Parker, an Englishman, actually came up with one that ran on rechargeable batteries in But dwindling resources of fossil fuels and concerns about CO2 emissions are now forcing us as a society to consider them as a serious alternative. Unsurprisingly INEOS has been quick to explore whether to switch to electric cars at its sites around the world.
No one disputes that. A move in the right direction, at least, towards lowering carbon emissions and creating a more sustainable world for future generations. The difficulty, though, is how do you convince people to change their way of life today without paying more?
Despite the limited mileage before the battery needs recharging, staff said the van felt safe and was a pleasure to drive. If the price — and conditions — are right, INEOS could also become one of the first chemical companies to use energy generated by its own Combined Heat and Power processes to move people and goods around on site. The cost, though, is one of the main reasons given by the public for not making the switch to electricity.
The short distances that can be travelled before the battery needs recharging is another perceived problem. After about 60 miles km , it will need charging again. But Renault says that by , a subcompact electric car will be cheaper to buy, it will go much further — possibly miles km before it needs recharging — and be quicker to recharge. More recently both companies have sought additional cooperation for using the electricity produced by the cogen unit onsite, to extend the environmental benefits beyond production units on site.
Discussions with Essent led to a partnership with 4iS a consulting firm that focuses on electromobility and a trial of electric cars agreed. For two months they were encouraged to use the car to transport equipment and pipes on short journeys around the site. The trial was a major team effort, involving INEOS, Essent, 4iS, which supports businesses that may want to switch to electric cars, Renault, which offered use of a test car, and Blue Corner, which provided the charging station.
And the feedback was largely positive. Staff said the car was safe, quiet and comfortable, and perfect for the short journeys around the site. Some, though, were concerned that the car posed a potential safety hazard because it was so quiet. They feared people might not hear it approaching or reversing. Overall, though, the staff liked it. Cost is the main issue restricting public demand for this new technology.
But things are changing rapidly Renault says that by , the range of a compact electric vehicle could be as much as km miles , the charging time will be significantly shorter and the overall cost to produce will be lower. They would be parked on site out of hours, when they can be recharged, so they are a very helpful addition to the sites operation.
To make these cars more popular and easier to handle the market has to develop. Future challenges will include reliability and durability of batteries and cost reduction. Antwerp now plans to review their internal car fleet to investigate the possibility of switching to e-cars. But people are queuing up to fork out at least 2, Euros to take part. Running in the sand dunes can cause your feet to swell. After three days your feet can feel like concrete slabs. The organisers kindly provide that.
All 14 gallons a day of it for each competitor. Mauro, though, is unlikely to ever want to do it again. Twenty years ago the Italian policeman got lost during a sandstorm, ran out of food and water after 36 hours and spent nine days alone in the desert before he was found miles km off course by a nomadic family.
He had survived by drinking his own urine and eating bats and snakes. There are no winners or losers; just a sea of red faces once the battle ends. In the past up to 50, people have thronged the streets of Bunol, near Valencia, to pelt each other with tons of overripe, squashed tomatoes. Today organisers sell tickets to just 20, Shopkeepers use huge plastic covers to protect their shop fronts throughout the hour-long street battle. A cannon signals the start of the fight and another marks the end.
The annual festival is believed to have been inspired by a group of teenagers who grabbed tomatoes from a vegetable stall and began to throw them at one another during a parade through Bunol in August This year armed guards patrolled the marathon route as the 48 athletes from 16 countries braved the threat of hungry polar bears, temperatures of C and drifting ice floes to complete the Competitor Robert Plijnaar from Holland wore three pairs of socks and three layers of clothing to keep warm.
Instead of a heavy ball, contestants whirl a frozen tuna around their heads with a rope and then fling it as far as they can. Whoever throws the 17lb blue fin tuna the furthest during the Tunarama Festival at Port Lincoln, in South Australia, is crowned world champion. Organisers say only the brave register for this event, which is deemed to be one of the toughest, wettest and hottest ultra-marathons in the world.
And you can see why. Apart from the sweltering temperatures, competitors have to wade through swamps where anacondas lurk, scale steep, slippery muddy slopes, tackle dense undergrowth, cross piranha-infested rivers and spend more than one night in the depths of the Amazon jungle with jaguars and howling monkeys for company. All runners must carry a knife, a copy of their medical insurance and enough food for the seven-day, mile km race to the finish.
Cheese RollingAn American Army veteran last year travelled more than 4, miles from his home in Colorado Springs to chase a 3kg large wheel of cheese down a steep hill in Gloucestershire in the UK. Thankfully the trip paid off; he won one of the races and some Double Gloucester cheese.
The first person to reach the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. There have been a few minor injuries over the years.
In a spectator was hurt when he fell out of a tree and had to be stretchered off with suspected fractures.
Mushers and their dogs cover 1, miles of the roughest, most beautiful terrain Alaska has to offer, including jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forest, and miles of windswept coast, in temperatures often far below zero and winds that can cause a complete loss of visibility.
The championships are held every year in Llanwrtyd Wells, the smallest town in Britain. But they are not alone. There are lot of creepy crawlies in the water, including the apparently harmless water scorpion. Baby Jumping FestivalOne of the most bizarre — and perhaps mildly alarming — events is The Baby Jumping Festival during which men depicting the devil leap over newborn babies lying on a mattress in the street.
The festival, which dates back to the s, is held every year in Castrillo de Murcia of Spain, and is part of the celebrations for the Catholic festival of Corpus Christi. Organisers of this annual event insist competitors are in Nepal three weeks before the race so they can acclimatise to the high altitude.
The race itself, which includes two steep uphill sections, criss-crosses highland Sherpa trails of the Khumbu icefall en route to the finish line at Namche Bazaar. Wife-carrying World ChampionshipsFinland may be the birthplace of the Wife-carrying World Championships but men come from far and wide to compete in this epic display of brute strength.
Competitors must wade through a metre-deep pool of water, clear hurdles and run as fast as they can with their wives dangled upside down over their shoulders. A wife has to weigh at least 49kg about 7. Dropping her incurs a second time penalty. The competition began in and is believed to be rooted in the legend of a hard-faced gang leader who made a habit of stealing women from neighbouring villages.
Comrades Ultra Marathon It might only be a recent phenomenon that ultra marathons have gained such popularity but some of them, such as 90km Comrades Ultra Marathon in South Africa have been around for many years. It was run for the first time on 24 May between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. Clapham, who had endured a 2,kilometre route march through East Africa, wanted the memorial to be a unique test of the physical endurance of the entrants.
It was an ambitious plan. A huge challenge. The Foundation is the first step to securing vital funding from government and businesses so that the GO Run For Fun team can run even more events with schools and local clubs across the UK and beyond.
Today they have a lot more distractions, and spend more time indoors playing on games consoles and smart phones than outside playing. And obesity is linked to diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia.
For fun. Teachers, whose schools have taken part in one of the all-inclusive events all over the UK, are equally as impressed and understand the importance of leading by example. Claire, whose father was a PE teacher, escorted 90 children to Olympic Park for the celebrity-led fun run. The appeal for more support, though, did not end there.
On June 5, Jim — plus 20 school children and one very large mascot called DART — lobbied politicians at the Houses of Parliament about the growing need to tackle childhood obesity.
Inactivity can no longer be ignored. The parliamentary reception was hosted by Alex Cunningham and provided Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Charlie Webster and Brendan Foster, with an opportunity to remind politicians of the need to build on the Olympic legacy and agree a clear policy.
In all, more than 3, children aged between four and 12 took part in 11 runs. On hand to cheer them on and ensure each event ran smoothly were hundreds of staff from all three sites who willingly turned out to act as first aiders, marshals and hand out T-shirts.
In June 1, children took part in four events in Germany. The Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Schule in Pulheim was one of the schools which took part. The Swiss event saw children from schools and sports clubs in Rolle, Nyon, Vich and Lausanne run 1. Who knows we might be encouraging the next generation of Swiss champions. The queen made a speech Feb.
Secularists claim that they are not trying to destroy religion in Britain, but to level the playing field. Challenging privilege is not anti-religious. Religion and secularism have different objectives, and, in my view, they do and will continue to coexist with tension between them.
Oddly enough, this tension, if balanced, can keep both religion and secularism in check within society. This balancing battle is not limited to Britain, as a similar battle exists in the United States. In the United States, we have the dual religious clauses of the 1st Amendment, which are not found in Britain. Each clause requires the balancing of rights and, for better or worse, the courts generally act as the arbiter.
Of note, these clauses and their balancing requirements exemplify the wisdom of their drafters. Whether in Britain or in the United States, religious leaders are concerned that this balancing of rights is being tilted in favor of secularism. Baroness Warsi warns about the impact of militant secularism. What is the cause for this tilt?
In part, society is becoming more secular, as fewer people identify themselves with religion. Of more concern is the rise of moral relativism. Speaking on the latter, Elder Dallin H. As it diminishes religion, it encourages the proliferation of rights that claim ascendancy over the free exercise of religion.
The challenge for religious leaders here and in Britain is to preserve religious freedoms and bring religious rights back into balance. Religion and secularism will always coexist until Jesus Christ returns to rule.
Granted, some religions have virtually no friction with the world and thus their coexistence is peaceful. I am confident that there will always be friction, to some degree, between secularists and the church. Dale Brueggemann. Learn more about Summer Session. You can discuss this post and others in the Faithlife Today group. Create an account or log in to get started.
Featured Courses. Ryan Pemberton 3 min read June 17, Leave a comment. A Muslim tourist named Ashrif took time off from his job as a pediatrician in England, packed his prayer mat, and flew to Cordoba with his family to visit the site.
He was disappointed that he was turned away, but he wasn't confrontational about it. Instead, he wandered through the courtyard with his family and lined up for audio guides. They filed into a space big enough for 40, people.
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