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Dune Part Two

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This weekend, I managed to make it to London despite the best efforts of the train companies, and headed down through the city to the BFI IMAX to see Dune Part Two. This is the largest screen in the UK, and also the only place to see a 15: 70mm film projection in true aspect ratio. I've been waiting for this book for almost fifty years. Denis Villeneuve has done a wonderful job, although there are quite a few changes, which purists don't like of course. The venue was epic as always, and the image was even 'bigger' than when we saw 'Oppenheimer' - you frequently had to look down at the image as well as up. The screening was sold out. There was a nice introduction from a staff member, and the film was excellent. More on my Geography on Film blog.

Swiftonomics

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This video forms part of a resource which I have been putting together over the last few months following the amazing scale and financial clout of Taylor Swift's ERAS tour, which is on course to raise over $1.5 billion - more than any other music tour in history, and that's without all the associated money that is spent on accommodation, travel etc. connected with the concerts - people even travel without a ticket just to stand outside the stadium while the concerts are on. Another useful video on this web page which has the title: 'Why is the world obsessed with Taylor Swift"'  It mentions a Swiftposium meeting. There are also links with the demographic influence she has. The effect is already affecting Australia, as can be seen in this article here, which suggested a few other industries to benefit, including tattoo artists. She's also heading to Europe as well. At the AAG , which this year takes place in Honolulu (happy to accept some support for me to get

Geography and Gaming

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The geography of video games is an area which has received attention from geography researchers over the years. Last year some 3.2bn people played video games, about four in ten people worldwide. The number has risen by about 100m a year, with a big jump during covid lockdowns in 2020. In rich countries two-thirds of people play, nearly half of them women. And though gaming is disproportionately a young person’s hobby (nine out of ten British 16- to 24-year-olds play games) older folk are picking up the habit, including half those aged 55-64. Worldwide, there are more console owners aged 35-44 than aged 16-24, says Karol Severin.  As he puts it, gamers are no longer just “young guys covered in crisps”. Source: The Economist. Phil Jones has written about the sense of place that can be evoked by a game, and I attended an excellent session that he presented. There are also some additional elements to add accuracy, including the representations of weather according to this article. It fe

Met Office Stamp Issue

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  A new stamp issue with a geographical theme is always something that I can get behind. In recent years, I've bought stamps linked with the Windrush Generation, UK Wildlife, National Parks and Polar explorers. The latest is celebrating 170 years of the Met Office and weather forecasting. They feature a number of important people and events, including Luke Howard , who invented the classification for different cloud types. Second Class Luke Howard, pioneer meteorologist, classified clouds in 1803 Second Class Storm barometer of Robert FitzRoy, founder of the Met Office in 1854 First Class Terra Nova Expedition studied extreme weather in 1910-12 First Class Marine buoys collect data for the Shipping Forecast, first broadcast in 1924 £2.00 Weather observers were vital to the success of the D-Day invasion in 1944 £2.00 Radar and computers improved forecasting accuracy from the 1950s £2.20 Barbara Edwards became the first British female TV weather presenter in 1974 £2.20 Supercomputers

The End we Start From

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A cross posting from my GeoLibrary blog - over 500 books and other resources for geography teachers have been placed on the shelves of the library so far. A cli-fi novel, which has been turned into a film, which is now out in cinemas. The original book was published in 2017. I read it yesterday in one sitting. It features a mother who gives birth at the same time as a disastrous flood inundates London (and presumably other areas in the south of England) leading to a breakdown in society, and martial law style interventions with refugee camps in Scotland and riots and fights breaking out over food. She is separated from her partner and family and fights to protect 'Z' - her child. All characters are identified only by a letter, and the text is broken up into short snippets and sections of just three or four lines in one go at most. It mostly works, and certainly creates a pace to the read. As things slowly start to improve, she aims to return 'home' to see what is left.

Making Space for Sand

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  Making Space for Sand is a project I was made aware of recently. The ‘Building Community Resilience on a Dynamic Coastline by Making Space for Sand’ project (also known as Making Space for Sand or MS4S) is one of 25 national projects funded by DEFRA as part of the £200 million Flood and Coastal Innovation Programme (FCRIP).  The programme will drive innovation in flood and coastal resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The project website has an excellent section outlining the formation of Sand Dunes, particularly within the located context of Cornwall. Sand Dunes are an important part of the coastal defences in the locations where they are found. I am particularly familiar with the dunes on the North Norfolk Coast at places like Holkham.  I've previously carried out fieldwork on those dunes with both GCSE and 'A' level students, and also  Atkins has provided GIS support and created some visualisations of future landscapes.