Prince of Wales retiring?

Is the Prince of Wales retiring?

Prince Charles was born on 14 November 1948 in London , England. He is celebrating his 65 birthday today.

The Prince can celebrate this milestone birthday content in the knowledge that 65 is no longer considered old in modern Britain .
Charles, who is still waiting to start the job for which he was born, is always “working, working, working” and is “not going to stop” just because he is now a pensioner, his wife the Duchess said.


Watch a short bio of his life 

Rubbish piling up in Madrid

Spanish garbage collectors have continued their indefinite strike over the government’s proposed lay-offs and wage cuts.

On Saturday, people in the capital Madrid started their fifth day of strike among huge piles of rubbish blocking narrow streets and emitting an awful stench.

After five days of strike, residents are demanding an urgent solution to resolve the crisis. 

 Click on the picture to watch a video 

 City authorities have tried to maintain a basic collection service by sending out rubbish trucks under heavy police escort.

“Nobody likes a strike. The streets are really dirty and it’s disgusting,” said Maravillas Prieto, a teacher from Madrid. “But I understand the workers. They were going to reduce their wages and sack more than 1,000 workers. This is because of the town hall. I blame the town hall completely.”

José Luis Rodríguez, a wedding photographer from Madrid, agreed: “I support the strike. Whose fault is it? I blame the city. They sold all the public services.”

Digging into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch lies in an area between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California. This area is in the middle of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

An ocean gyre is a circular ocean current formed by the Earth’s wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. The area in the center of a gyre tends to be very calm and stable. The circular motion of the gyre draws in debris. Debris eventually makes its way into the center of the gyre, where it becomes trapped and builds up. A similar garbage patch exists in the Atlantic Ocean, in the North Atlantic Gyre.

The motion of the gyre prevents garbage and other materials from escaping. The amount of material in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces.

For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are usually made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics that make up the majority of garbage patches can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Satellite imagery of oceans doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage.

The existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was predicted by many oceanographers and climatologists. However, the actual discovery of the patch was made by a racing boat captain, Charles Moore. Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California after competing in a yachting race. Crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship.

Plastic products can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, their favorite food. And many marine mammals and birds,
 such as albatrosses, have become strangled by the plastic rings used to hold six-packs of soda together.



Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs in the marine food web. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own nutrients from oxygen, carbon, and sunlight.

If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals such as fish and turtles that feed on algae and plankton will have less food. If those animals start to die, there will be less food for predator species such as tuna, sharks, and whales.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch collects marine debris from North America and Asia, as well as ships traveling through the area. Trash from the coast of North America takes about six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while trash from Japan and other Asian countries takes about a year.

No one knows how much debris makes up the entire patch. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is about 19 million square kilometers (7 million square miles). It is too large for scientists to trawl the entire surface. In addition, not all of the trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink to the middle or bottom of the water. We have no way to measure this unseen litter.

Taken from  National Geographic Education

Scared Shrekless

Happy Halloween !!

Prince George christened

The christening of Prince George has taken place in the Chapel Royal at St. James´s Palace in London.

The prince, third in line to the throne, was baptised by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The christening was private, with only senior royals, four members of the Middleton family, the seven godparents and their spouses among the 22 guests. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh attended the ceremony.

The duchess carried her newly christened son out of the chapel after the ceremony, and the guests then left for tea hosted by the Prince of Wales at Clarence House.

 Prince George, son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, was born in London on 22 July.

Click on the image above to watch a short video ( BBC News )

Hangman

Do you want to have a go ? Come on , try it !!
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Countries and nationalities

Interactive Grammar Games and Quizzes

Revise your grammar with this interactive web. Try it out ! Hope it is helpful 

Click on the picture below.

Sober Up in a drunk tank

Drinkers who get so intoxicated they cannot look after themselves would be cared for in holding cells until they sober up and charged for it, as well as being fined for being drunk and disorderly.

Police believe this initiative would act as a deterrent to excessive drinking as well as free up officers from having to deal with late-night drunkenness.

 Adrian Lee, the chief constable of Northamptonshire  said: “I do not see why the police service or the health service should pick up the duty of care for someone who has chosen to go out and get so drunk that they cannot look after themselves".
 It is estimated that it costs between £300 and £400 a night to hold someone in a police cell - more than a night in the Ritz hotel. Is public money being used irresponsably?

Watch the video to learn a bit more about this issue