The Slums in Mumbai and the shanty towns

Wiki says:

Shanty towns (also called squatter settlements camps, favelas or Georgie Slums) are settlements (sometimes illegal or unauthorized) of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap plywood, corrugated metal, and sheets of plastic. Shanty towns are mostly found in developing nations, or partially developed nations with an unequal distribution of wealth (or, on occasion, developed countries in a severe recession). In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city.

The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling.

There is a near total absence of formal street grids, numbered streets, sanitation networks, electricity and telephones. Shanty towns also tend to lack basic services present in more formally organized settlements, including policing, medical services, and fire fighting. Fires are a particular danger for shanty towns because of the close proximity of buildings and flammability of materials used in construction.

Stereotypes present shanty towns as inevitably having high rates of crime, suicide, drug use, and disease. However the observer Georg Gerster has noted (with specific reference to the invasões of Brasilia), "squatter settlements [as opposed to slums], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus."

The largest shanty town in the world is the Neza-Chalco-Itza barrio in Mexico. The largest shanty town in Asia is the Orangi Township in Karachi, Pakistan. while the largest in Africa is Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya. Another large shanty town is Dharavi in Mumbai, India which houses over 1 million people.

Favela

How to Understand Earth's Population Distribution

The Earth contains over 6.6 billion people. But these six billion are not evenly spread over the world's habitable surface. Where are all these people located? Many factors contribute to the geography spread of people and populations around the globe, such as climate, terrain and topography, physical and political boundaries, and more. However, broad general patterns of populations on Earth can still be understood. This article will outline the general characteristics of Earth's human population distribution.

1. Step 1.Two-thirds of Earth's population lives within the mid latitudes, and almost 90 percent of the world's population lives north of the equator.
2. Step 2.Around 90 percent of the world's population is concentrated on only 20 percent of the land surface. Therefore, a large majority of Earth's inhabitants live on and occupy a small portion of Earth's total habitable land area.
3. Step 3.Three major population centers around the world include: East Asia (China, the Koreas, and Japan); South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh); and Europe (Western, Eastern, and Southern Europe). In fact, two countries each contain over one billion people: China and India. Since Earth's population is over six billion, this means that China and India each contain at least one-sixth of the Earth's total human population. Each major world region contained the following percentage of the Earth's total population in 1999: Africa (12.8 %), Asia (60.8 %), Europe (12.2 %), Latin America and the Caribbean (8.5 %), North America (5.1 %), Oceania (0.5 %).
4. Step 4 . While low-lying areas are more preferable for the locations of settlements, still a large portion of the Earth remains quite uninhabited. The sparsely population regions include northern and western North America, northern and central Asia, and interior South America, interior Africa, and the interior of Australia.
5. Step 5 Cities and urban regions have seen dramatic increases in population over the last fifty years, with much growth continuing at present and into the future. Currently the Earth's urban population is estimated to be around 3.5 billion people. based in..
   

World Population Video

This seven minute film depicts the history of human population growth and distribution from 1 AD through the present, then projects future growth to the year 2030.

Eight frames of the video are presented here: the opening in 1 AD; then skipping ahead to 1800, when the population reached the first billion, followed by the years in which the population reached each successive billion; and the closing frame at 2030, showing the 8.2 billion people expected to inhabit the Earth by then if current growth rates continue.

The Spanish Armada

The Spanish Armada

In May 1588 a massive invasion fleet or 'Armada' sailed from the port of Lisbon. It was made up of 130 ships fitted with 2,500 guns. They carried 30,000 soldiers and sailors. This great war fleet was bound for England.

Why is the 1588 battle with the Spanish Armada so famous?

The Armada is famous because at that time England was a small nation with a little navy and they were facing the greatest power in the world (Spain). They defeated Spain, with help from Mother Nature. It marked the beginning of England's mastery of the seas.

The great history of the English navy began, as did serious English exploration and colonization.

Why was the Spanish Armada launched against England?

The Spanish monarch, Philip II, was angry that Queen Elizabeth had not punished Sir Francis Drake and other English seadogs for plundering Spanish ships.

Philip was a devout Catholic. He felt it was his duty to invade and conquer England in order to convert the country back to the Church of Rome.

Where did the Spanish fleet meet the English fleet?

The two fleets met in the English Channel. There were many more Spanish ships than the English ships but the English ships were smaller and easy to manoeuvre. This would turn out to be a great advantage for the English.

How did Queen Elizabeth I's fire ships help to defeat the Spanish Armada?

On 6 August 1588, the Spanish Armada anchored at Calais. The English filled eighty ships with flammable material and set fire to them. They sent in fireships to panic the Spaniards and scatter the Armada's formation. (The Armada's formation, the famous crescent, had proved extremely successful in previous campaign as it allowed all ships to fire their heavy guns simultaneously.) The Spanish panicked and fled to the open sea, straight into the gunfire of the waiting English.

In the open sea, the Armada wasn’t in formation, so the Spanish ships were easy targets for the English artillery.

What also aided the English in defeating the Armada?

An important reason why the English were able to defeat the Armada was that the wind blew the Spanish ships northwards. Strong winds and terrible rain forced many ships onto rocks near
Ireland.

The English celebrated their victory with a medal saying 'God Blew and they were Scattered'

based in ....

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Reformation and Counter-reformation videos

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Miguel Angel

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Leonardo Da Vinci

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Women´s Day

International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday.

International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.

1908
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named a Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

1911
Following the decision agreed at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination. However less than a week later on 25 March, the tragic 'Triangle Fire' in New York City took the lives of more than 140 working women, most of them Italian and Jewish immigrants. This disastrous event drew significant attention to working conditions and labour legislation in the United States that became a focus of subsequent International Women's Day events. 1911 also saw women's 'Bread and Roses' campaign.

1913-1914
On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February 1913. In 1913 following discussions, International Women's Day was transferred to 8 March and this day has remained the global date for International Wommen's Day ever since. In 1914 further women across Europe held rallies to campaign against the war and to express women's solidarity.

1917
On the last Sunday of February, Russian women began a strike for "bread and peace" in response to the death over 2 million Russian soldiers in war. Opposed by political leaders the women continued to strike until four days later the Czar was forced to abdicate and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote. The date the women's strike commenced was Sunday 23 February on the Julian calendar then in use in Russia. This day on the Gregorian calendar in use elsewhere was 8 March.

1918 - 1999
Since its birth in the socialist movement, International Women's Day has grown to become a global day of recognition and celebration across developed and developing countries alike. For decades, IWD has grown from strength to strength annually. For many years the United Nations has held an annual IWD conference to coordinate international efforts for women's rights and participation in social, political and economic processes. 1975 was designated as 'International Women's Year' by the United Nations. Women's organisations and governments around the world have also observed IWD annually on 8 March by holding large-scale events that honour women's advancement and while diligently reminding of the continued vigilance and action required to ensure that women's equality is gained and maintained in all aspects of life.

2000 and beyond
IWD is now an official holiday in China, Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. The tradition sees men honouring their mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc with flowers and small gifts. In some countries IWD has the equivalent status of Mother's Day where children give small presents to their mothers and grandmothers.

The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women's and society's thoughts about women's equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that 'all the battles have been won for women' while many feminists from the 1970's know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women's visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women's education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.

However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.

Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate achievements. A global web of rich and diverse local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.

Many global corporations have also started to more actively support IWD by running their own internal events and through supporting external ones. For example, on 8 March search engine and media giant Google some years even changes its logo on its global search pages. Year on year IWD is certainly increasing in status. The United States even designates the whole month of March as 'Women's History Month'.

So make a difference, think globally and act locally !! Make everyday International Women's Day. Do your bit to ensure that the future for girls is bright, equal, safe and rewarding. To Know more...

Who was Christopher Columbus?

The Truth About Christopher Columbus

"Who was Christopher Columbus? Was he really the first to discover America? Did he really do it to prove the Earth was round? Is there a reason the continents he discovered weren't called Columbia? What is the real truth about Christopher Columbus? Even on ATS, I've read a lot of threads with wrong information and assumptions about Columbus and the discovery of America. It is for this reason, I've decided to write this contextual history answering the biggest questions about the man. Read on, to find it out. Some of it you probably already knew, some of it you probably suspected, and some of it will probably surprise you......". You can know more here.

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Marco Polo´s Journey

Marco Polo was a great Italian explorer. He was born in Venice, Italy, in 1254. He had a very sad childhood. His father, a merchant, was away from home for several years and his mother died when he was very young. When he was seventeen, he joined his father and uncle on a trading expedition to China and this journey gave him a taste for travel and adventure.

Marco Polo went to China to trade and find new markets and products. While he was in China he met Kublai Khan who was the Mongol ruler of China. He travelled for 24 years. On his return he was put in prison where he told stories of his travels to a fellow prisoner who then wrote a famous book about Marco Polo’s adventures. At the time, people didn’t believe the stories but now most people believe his stories were true.

Marco Polo married very late, at the age of 45, to a rich widow. He had three daughters. Marco Polo is still famous for his exploration and travels. He is also well-known for his fantastic stories and his knowledge of China and the court of the great Kublai Khan. Marco Polo died at the age of 70 in 1324 in Venice.To Know more...

• National Geographic
• The travels of Marco Polo
• The travel
• Win a million

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HOMEWORK : You have to write the route of Marco Polo´s journey, with some information of every place .

A major Christian pilgrimage route: The Way of St James

A major Christian pilgrimage route

The Way of St James has existed for over a thousand years. It was one of the most important Christian pilgrimages during medieval times, and a pilgrimage route on which a plenary indulgence could be earned; other major pilgrimage routes include the Via Francigena to Rome and the pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Legend holds that St. James's remains were carried by boat from Jerusalem to northern Spain where he was buried on the site of what is now the city of Santiago de Compostela. There are some, however, who claim that the bodily remains at Santiago belong to Priscillian, the fourth-century Galician leader of an ascetic Christian sect, Priscillianism, who was one of the first Christian heretics to be executed.

The Way can take one of any number of pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela. Traditionally, as with most pilgrimages, the Way of Saint James began at one's home and ended at the pilgrimage site. However a few of the routes are considered main ones. During the Middle Ages, the route was highly traveled. However, the Black Plague, the Protestant Reformation and political unrest in 16th-century Europe led to its decline. By the 1980s, only a few pilgrims arrived in Santiago annually. Since then however the route has attracted a growing number of modern-day pilgrims from around the globe. The route was declared the first European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in October 1987; it was also named one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.

The earliest records of visits paid to the shrine dedicated to St. James at Santiago de Compostela date from the 8th century, in the time of the Kingdom of Asturias. The pilgrimage to the shrine became the most renowned medieval pilgrimage, and it became customary for those who returned from Compostela to carry back with them a Galician scallop shell as proof of their completion of the journey. This practice was gradually extended to other pilgrimages.

The earliest recorded pilgrims from beyond the Pyrenees visited the shrine in the middle of the 10th century, but it seems that it was not until a century later that large numbers of pilgrims from abroad were regularly journeying there. The earliest records of pilgrims that arrived from England belong to the period between 1092 and 1105. However, by the early 12th century the pilgrimage had become a highly organized affair.

One of the great proponents of the pilgrimage in the 12th century was Calixtus II who started the Compostelan Holy Years. The official guide in those times was the Codex Calixtinus. Published around 1140, the 5th book of the Codex is still considered the definitive source for many modern guidebooks. Four pilgrimage routes listed in the Codex originate in France and converge at Puente la Reina. From there, a well-defined route crosses northern Spain, linking Burgos, Carrión de los Condes, Sahagún, León, Astorga, and Compostela.

The daily needs of pilgrims on their way to, and from, Compostela were met by a series of hospitals and hospices. These had royal protection and were a lucrative source of revenue. A new genre of ecclesiastical architecture, Romanesque, with its massive archways, was designed to cope with huge devout crowds. There was also the now- familiar paraphernalia of tourism, such as the selling of badges and souvenirs. Since the Christian symbol for James the Greater was the scallop shell, many pilgrims would wear this as a sign to anyone on the road that they were a pilgrim. This gave them privileges to sleep in churches and ask for free meals, but also warded off thieves who did not dare attack devoted pilgrims.

The pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela was possible because of the protection and freedom provided by the Kingdom of France, where the majority of pilgrims originated. Enterprising French people (including Gascons and other peoples not under the French crown) settled in towns along the pilgrimage routes, where their names appear in the archives. The pilgrims were tended by people like Domingo de la Calzada who was later recognized as a saint himself.

Pilgrims would walk the Way of St. James, often for months, in order to arrive at the great church in the main square of Compostela to pay homage to St. James. So many pilgrims have laid their hands on the pillar just inside the doorway of the church that a groove has been worn in the stone.

Oddly, the popular Spanish name for the astronomical Milky Way is El Camino de Santiago. The Milky Way was said to be formed from the dust raised by travelling pilgrims in a common medieval legend. Compostela itself means 'field of stars'.Another origin for this popular name is the Book IV of the Book of Saint James which relates how the saint appeared in a dream to Charlemagne, urging him to liberate his tomb from the Moors and showing him the direction to follow by the route of the Milky Way.

Eje Cronológico de la vida del Cid Campeador

Empleando el libro, este enlace y los vídeos crea un eje cronológico con la vida del CID.

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Why on earth some people choose Islam?

Autómatas en el Al-Andalus

La ciencia en el mundo árabe adquirio un importante desarrollo en la Edad Media, pero no solo la ciencia sino la aplicación de la técnica para el desarrollo de diversos aparatos e instrumentos. En el mundo árabe tal y como puedes ver en los vídeos resulta frecuente la existencia de autómatas, que aparecen enocasiones en su literatura y frecuentemente entre las clases altas de la sociedad como juguetes y objetos curiosos.

About the Elephant clock of al-Jazari
En en Al-Andalus, estos autómatas también eran frecuentes. En al-Andalus se construyeron clepsidras (relojes de agua) y autómatas, desde el siglo IX. Fueron famosas las clepsidras que creó Azarquiel en Toledo, junto al Tajo, en el siglo XI. Registraban el paso de las horas y las fases de la luna; durante los 14 primeros días del mes los recipientes se llenaban de agua a una velocidad constante, vaciándose también a ritmo constante en catorce segundos.

Otro andalusí, Ibn Jalaf al-Muradi (s.XI), escribió un tratado sobre autómatas, el “Kitab al-asrar”. En él describe, entre otros relojes con autómatas, la llamada clepsidra de las gacelas, donde, bajo un pabellón de palacio y un jardín, hay un mecanismo con un tubo de mercurio y dos balanzas, cuyos recipientes se llenan de agua alternativamente, provocando una secuencia de movimiento en las figuras de autómatas.

En dicha clepsidra: La Clepsidra de las Gacelas, aparecen unas muchachas que salen al jardín de palacio para contemplar a las gacelas bebiendo. Un criado oculto en el pozo se asoma para espiar a las jóvenes, pero inmediatamente surgen víboras para defenderlas. Las gacelas dejan de beber, las jóvenes huyen al pabellón, el criado se vuelve al pozo y las serpientes se ocultan. Se trata de un divertido juego de autómatas que muestra una escena palaciega. Para saber más....

Discover the Muslim origins of many Western discoveries!

From the 8th Century, Muslim tradition and culture set trends in eating, music and style that still influence us today. Their experiments, discoveries and inventions with liquids, light and time opened the door to myriad new chemical compounds, measurements of time in precise and minute detail and devices used in space observation and deep sea exploration. Click here to know more...

The Islamic World

The Arab and Muslim world has had a profound and lasting influence on our life today, the list is long and full of surprises, but perhaps the most important thing that the Islamic Empire did for us is preserve, refine and improve all the knowledge left by the scholars of the ancients, and without that work by the Muslim scholars all of that knowledge might have been lost and our lives much the poorer.

—Adam Hart-Davies

This episode features reports from Zain in Egypt, Spain and France elaborated by demonstrations from Adam Hart Davis, Marty Jopson and expert guests that examine the ideas and inventions that emerged from the Islamic Golden Age.

• The Astrolabe, demonstrated to Hart-Davis, was used by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi and Abu-Mahmud al-Khujandi to develop Islamic astronomy and Islamic geography.
• Optical science was developed using a camera obscura, demonstrated by Hart-Davis, created by Ibn al-Haytham, an Iraqi physicist, while under house arrest.
• The windmill, demonstrated by Jopsom, originated in Afghanistan and was brought back to the West by the Crusaders.
• The House of Wisdom founded by al-Ma'mun translated and preserved the science and philosophy of the ancient Greeks.
• The grab, demonstrated by Jopsom, was designed by the Banū Mūsā brothers to pick things up from the seabed.
• The Alhambra, visited by Zain, features magnificent gravity-driven fountains in the finest example of early Islamic architecture.
• Etiquette, fashion and fine-dining were introduced in Andalusia, visited by Zain, by a freed slave Ziryab.
• Lusterware, demonstrated to Hart-Davis, was developed by early Muslim alchemists to create beautiful porcelain.
• Distillation, demonstrated by Jopsom, was developed by ibn Hayyan using the alembic to make perfume, petrol and alcohol.
• Soap making, demonstrated by Hart-Davis, introduced hard soap to the bathhouses of the Islamic World.
• The reciprocating piston suction pump, incorporating a crankshaft-connecting rod mechanism, invented by Al-Jazari, is demonstrated.
• The torpedo by the Syrian inventor Hasan al-Rammah is demonstrated.

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Some of them:

• Scales in music

• The first windmill

• Muslim Contribution to Agriculture

The rise of fall of Islamic Spain

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Cathedrals, videos

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A medieval Joke

Medieval Lives

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Lost Worlds: The Vikings

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