Globalisation: The good, the bad and the very, very ugly!

The boards of Cadbury and US giant Kraft Foods have agreed a deal which will see Kraft takeover the British chocolate maker in a deal valuing the company at £11.5bn. Read more here. Kraft will be borrowing 7 billion to finance the deal.

Cadbury and Kraft: How they compare?

"Who do you think the winners and losers will be in this deal? The chairman of Cadbury's has already confirmed that job losses are an "inevitability".

Will Kraft promise a glass and a half of milk in their products?



What about the TV adverts that promoted the products?


Some more pictures of adverts here.

Read about the history and legacy of Cadbury.

Savour the flavour. I plan to stock up on these...



The ugly...


Today is a very sad day :(

Earthquake in Haiti...

This has been in the news since Tuesday, when a massive earthquake struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The earthquake measured 7.3 on the Richter scale and occured 15km from the capital Port au Prince.






Plenty of information here:
BBC News
The Guardian Live Blog

Here is some information about the countries which have pledged to the aid effort so far.

Donation Site here.

Freeze thaw weathering causing potholes!

Here is an article that highlights freeze-thaw weathering creating potholes in roads- one of the impacts from the recent cold spell and something which year 9 were discussing today. Drove over one myself this morning on the way to work and it managed to put an end to the music i was listening to!



Well done to Ahmad for coming up with the ipothole app- tells you where these are! ;)

Message for Year 11...

Please see the VLE for your work for period 5 today. You should have downloaded the DME booklet in the earlier post on here but if not then please do so now. Then go to the VLE where you will find the work for today. If you don't understand or require support feel free to leave me a comment. Miss Smith :)

Snow apps for the iphone....

My year 9 class had a go with Tony Cassidy's excellent resource yesterday...

Frozen Britain 2010

View more presentations from TonyCassidy.

Here is some of the work that they produced:

Examples of Students Work.

View more presentations from Liz Smith.

They developed some great iphone apps, including:
Sledge- informs you of of the best spots for sledging.
Hand Heater- rub the phone to generate heat.
Met Office- for up to date forecasts.
Thermometer: To check the temperature.
Games such as snowboarding to keep you occupied if bored.
Bus and Southern Rail timetables.
Facebook to keep in touch with friends if snowed in.
Heart FM- for local news and travel information.
Road Closure app.
Layer- Advises you on how many layers to wear.
Food Stock- Type in your postcode and food ingredient and it informs you of stock numbers.

Thanks to Alan Parkinson for sending me this icon based on one idea of an app for informing you about the best spots for sledging. Tom and Joe can now argue it out about who thought of it first, or share the wealth! ;)

Thanks to Tony for sharing his fantastic resources! :)

The Big Freeze: January 2010

Today, we have been discussing the continuing cold weather over the last week or so, understanding why it happened and discussing some of the impacts and responses around Britain.


(Image: NASA/GFSC, MODIS Rapid Response).

I have asked you to write about your experiences of the snow and freezing cold weather in the form of a blog post. Please leave your comments below and i look forward to reading them. Miss Smith :)

Wind Farms: Generating power and jobs?

A useful BBC News article here for Year 11 to be reading about wind farms. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is launching a £100bn programme to build thousands of offshore wind farms.

Year 11- Decision Making Exercise

The Decision Making Exercise (DME) exam will be on the morning of Friday 29th January and will last for 1 hour 45 minutes.

The Issue: The Energy Gap: Is the answer blowing in the wind?

Here is a copy of the pre-release resource booklet that you have in the exam and we will be using this every lesson to become familiar with the materials.

OCR Resource Booklet

View more presentations from Liz Smith.

Here are some general wind energy links:
EIA Energy Kids US site explaining how wind energy works, types of turbine, etc.
BBC Video on How Wind Produces Electricity
BBC News - Government sets 2020 renewables targets (video clip)

Please make sure you access the VLE where all the lesson materials will be there incase you miss a lesson. Miss Smith :)

Happy New Year!