Geography of the Northern Hemisphere

Geography of the Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the northern half of the Earth. It begins at 0Â ° or the equator and continues north until it reaches 90Â °N latitude or the North Pole. The word hemisphere itself specifically means half of a sphere, and since the earth is considered an oblate sphere, a hemisphere is half. Geography and Climate Like the Southern Hemisphere, the Northern Hemisphere has a varied topography and climate. However, there is more land in the Northern Hemisphere so it is even more varied and this plays a role in the weather patterns and climate there. The land in the Northern Hemisphere consists of all of Europe, North America and Asia, a portion of South America, two-thirds of the African continent and a very small portion of the Australian continent with islands in New Guinea. Winter in the Northern Hemisphere lasts from around December 21 (the winter solstice) to the vernal equinox around March 20. Summer lasts from the summer solstice around June 21 to the autumnal equinox around September 21. These dates are due to the Earths axial tilt. From the period of December 21 to March 20, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, and during the June 21 to September 21 interval, it is tilted toward the sun. To aid in studying its climate, the Northern Hemisphere is divided into several different climatic regions. The Arctic is the area that is north of the Arctic Circle at 66.5Â °N. It has a climate with very cold winters and cool summers. In the winter, it is in complete darkness for 24 hours per day and in the summer it receives 24 hours of sunlight. South of the Arctic Circle to the Tropic of Cancer is the Northern Temperate Zone. This climatic area features mild summers and winters, but specific areas within the zone can have very different climatic patterns. For example, the southwestern United States features an arid desert climate with very hot summers, while the state of Florida in the southeastern U.S. features a humid subtropical climate with a rainy season and mild winters. The Northern Hemisphere also encompasses a portion of the Tropics between the Tropic of Cancer and the equator. This area is usually hot all year and has a rainy summer season. The Coriolis Effect An important component of the Northern Hemispheres physical geography is the Coriolis Effect and the specific direction that objects are deflected in the northern half of the Earth. In the northern hemisphere, any object moving over the Earths surface deflects to the right. Because of this, any large patterns in air or water turn clockwise north of the equator. For example, there are many large ocean gyres in the North Atlantic and North Pacific- all of which turn clockwise. In the Southern Hemisphere, these directions are reversed because objects are deflected to the left. In addition, the right deflection of objects impacts the flows of air over the Earth and air pressure systems. A high-pressure system, for example, is an area where the atmospheric pressure is greater than that of the surrounding area. In the Northern Hemisphere, these move clockwise because of the Coriolis Effect. By contrast, low-pressure systems or areas where atmospheric pressure is less than that of the surrounding area move counterclockwise because of the Coriolis Effect in the Northern Hemisphere. Population Because the Northern Hemisphere has more land area than the Southern Hemisphere it should also be noted that the majority of Earths population and its largest cities are also in its northern half. Some estimates say that the Northern Hemisphere is approximately 39.3% land, while the Southern half is only 19.1% land. Reference Wikipedia. (13 June 2010). Northern Hemisphere - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hemisphere

Defining and Understanding Literacy

Defining and Understanding Literacy Simply put, literacy is the ability to read and write in at least one language. So just about everyone in developed countries is literate in the basic sense. In her book The Literacy Wars,  Ilana Snyder argues that there is no single, correct view of literacy that would be universally accepted. There are a number of competing definitions, and these definitions are continually changing and evolving. The following quotes raise several issues about literacy, its necessity, its power, and its evolution. Observations on Literacy Literacy is a human right, a tool of personal empowerment and a means for social and human development. Educational opportunities depend on literacy. Literacy is at the heart of basic education for all and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace, and democracy., Why Is Literacy Important? UNESCO, 2010The notion of basic literacy is used for the initial learning of reading and writing, which adults who have never been to school need to go through. The term functional literacy is kept for the level of reading and writing that adults are thought to need in a modern complex society. Use of the term underlines the idea that although people may have basic levels of literacy, they need a different level to operate in their day-to-day lives., David Barton, Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language,  2006To acquire literacy is more than to psychologically and mechanically dominate reading and writing techniques. It is to dominate those techniques in terms of consciousness; to understand what one reads and to write what one understands: It is to communicate graphically. Acquiring literacy does not involve memorizing sentences, words or syllables, lifeless objects unconnected to an existential universe, but rather an attitude of creation and re-creation, a self-transformation producing a stance of intervention in ones context., Paulo Freire, Education for Critical Consciousness, 1974 There is hardly an oral culture or a predominantly oral culture left in the world today that is not somehow aware of the vast complex of powers forever inaccessible without literacy., Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word,  1982 Women and Literacy Joan Acocella, in a New Yorker review of the book The Woman Reader by Belinda Jack, had this to say in 2012: In the history of women, there is probably no matter, apart from contraception, more important than literacy. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, access to the power required knowledge of the world. This could not be gained without reading and writing, skills that were granted to men long before they were to women. Deprived of them, women were condemned to stay home with the livestock or, if they were lucky, with the servants. (Alternatively, they may have been the servants.) Compared with men, they led mediocre lives. In thinking about wisdom, it helps to read about wisdom, about Solomon or Socrates or whomever. Likewise, goodness and happiness and love. To decide whether you have them or want to make the sacrifices necessary to get them, it is useful to read about them. Without such introspection, women seemed stupid; therefore, they were considered unfit for education; therefore, they weren’t given an education; therefore they seemed stupid.   A New Definition? Barry Sanders, in A Is for Ox: Violence, Electronic Media, and the Silencing of the Written Word (1994), makes a case for a changing definition of literacy in the technological age. We need a radical redefinition of literacy, one that includes a recognition of the vital importance that morality plays in shaping literacy. We need a radical redefinition of what it means for society to have all the appearances of literacy and yet to abandon the book as its dominant metaphor. We must understand what happens when the computer replaces the book as the prime metaphor for visualizing the self.It is important to remember that those who celebrate the intensities and discontinuities of postmodern electronic culture in print write from an advanced literacy. That literacy provides them the profound power of choosing their ideational repertoire. No such choice or power is available to the illiterate young person subjected to an endless stream of electronic images.