I'm still here - honest!

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since my last post, it's all got a bit crazy here with exams and whatnot, but I am still here - honest!

Totally snowed under with Biology and Psychology revision this week as I was ill during the first exams and messed up big time, so I need to ace these ones to bring my grades up.

Snowed under Psychology

Those of you that are observant may notice that i'm wearing shorts - DO NOT BE FOOLED! I'm only wearing them to convince myself that it is in fact, summer (it's not working). At 10am this morning, it was 10 degrees celcius, on the 30th May...less than a month before midsummer...

I've rediscovered a childhood love - My parents are aliens, I've actually ended up scheduling revision breaks for 14:30 and 17:30 just so I can tune into CITV and watch it! I know, I know, It's a bit sad for a 17 year old to be watching a kids TV show, but it makes me laugh and there's so much humour that I didn't pick up on 10 years ago!

I also spent a good few minutes exchanging "miranda memes" with a friend - and formed an entire conversation! (This was before settling down for revision)

In fact, all this Miranda talk is making me want to watch it, I'm going to have to dig out the DVDs any minute now! (Well, I have powered through todays revision and I need a good laugh!)

In fact, I can't contain myself any longer, I must leave now while I still have time before dinner.

Alons-y My hearty reader chums! (Anyone see what I did there...No? Just me then.)

2 down, 6 to go.

Well, today officially marked the start of the exam period for me, I arrived at school, as usual, at 8am, I then spent an hour drifting between last-minute revision and ultimate panic.

9am - TO THE SPORTS HALL, SEAT T11. (I thought the italics might make it seem more dramatic...no? Oh well.)

This was for my history exam on Race and American society 1865-1970s, I was well prepared for this exam(a little too prepared, it would seem), I had fairly good knowledge of the entire period and was fairly confident. 

On reading the interpretation, my initial thought was "well, that's a bit odd compared to all the past papers, oh well, I can still use the sources in the same way."

Oh boy was I wrong, barely ANY of the sources supported the interpretation and it was so difficult to find similarities between them as they varied so greatly and contradicted each other.

Despite this, I think I've done ok.

I then spent 10:30-11:20 trying to de-stress in preparation for my geography exam at 1, it wasn't very effective.

At 11:20 I went to my geography lesson (only 3 of us actually turned up!) and we went over some last minute facts and figures (but did any of them prove to be of any use in the exam..what do you think?..) before explaining to our teacher that we all have have a revision website: www.examtime.com following us on Twitter because we're such geography nerds. 

After this, we went to the sixth form block just to relax and try not to think about what was quickly approaching  and had a banana :P 

By the time we left at 12:50, I was feeling strangely calm, all the way until lining up outside. This didn't last.

This is was me about a minute before going in:

And this was my face afterwards:

I'll elaborate: there was little range in the topics that came up and it was very difficult to actually include any case studies in my answers, I managed to somehow though, it's difficult to explain but it was just...odd.

Come out of the hall at 2:30...straight to my history lesson for the Elizabeth Topic, we did a bit of revision on parliament and factions and my teacher gave us all a toffee crisp as a reward for the history exam this morning.

After this, it was FINALLY hometime, or so I thought...

I wasn't looking forward to waiting outside at the bus stop for 20 minutes in the rain but I knew i'd be home soon, little did I know that the bus had actually broken down and we'd have to wait over an hour for a replacement coach to pick us up.

Finally arrived home just after 5 and had dinner before doing some light biology revision and writing this post.

So exams are officially underway now and I just need to keep focussed for a few more weeks...and then another year...

I'd better go now and get on with some more geography or biology revision for round two.

Then I'm going to settle down in front of the TV (probably fall asleep in front of it - I'm knackered) and have the giant cookie my Dad bought me as a treat (he's seen how much revision I've done recently and felt I needed a pick-me-up)

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ELSE WITH EXAMS! :D

Geographical investigations - crowded coasts - competition for coasts

Geographical investigations

Crowded Coasts

Competition for coasts

COAST – That part of the land most affected by its proximity to the sea and that part of the ocean most affected by its proximity to the land.

• Coastal zone is most populated part of the world, containing many of the largest cities and manufacturing centres.
• Coastal lowlands are important food producers.
• Coastal ports play leading role in world trade.
• Coast become popular place for leisure, recreation and tourism.
• The coast is an open system involving inputs, internal transfers and outputs of water, sediment and energy in a state of dynamic equilibrium.
• This equilibrium is easily upset by human activities.

Coastal diversity

·        Diversity of landscapes exists along coast.

Nature of coasts:

LAND

-Shape

-Relief

-Presence or lack of beach

-Structure

-Resistance of rocks

-Sub-aerial processes

-River sediments

-Coastal ecosystems

SEA

-Coastal ecosystems

-Wave energy&direction

-Size%type of waves

-Local currents and longshore drift

-Tidal changes

-Water depth

-Offshore sediments

-Long-term changes in sea-level.

WEATHER AND CLIMATE

-Wind strength & direction

-Rainfall & temperature

-Storms & surges

HUMAN ACTIVITIES

-Intervention in natural systems

-Use of land for development

-Exploitation of resources

COASTAL ATTRACTIONS

·        Estimated that over half the worlds population and 2/3 of major cities are found within 60km of the sea.

THE COASTAL MAGNET

• In 1990, 30% of world population lived on the coast (60% in the 60km zone).
• By 2002, it was 40%.
• Coastal populations are growing at a rate 4X global average.
• Some of fastest growing megacities (Lagos, Shanghai) are on coast.
• “People are attracted to gorgeous natural settings until they become so full of people that the attraction is destroyed.”

·        In middle and higher latitudes, the coast has a more equable climate than inland locations = more comfortable living conditions.

·        From earliest times, much human movement between places was by sea rather than over land – no roads and wilderness impeded transport.

·        Coastal lowlands were well suited to farming and inshore waters provided fish.

·        Food security and transport were the original attractions for living in coastal locations.

The Lancashire coastal plain

• Stretches from river Mersey in south to southern edge of Lake district in north.
• Bounded by Pennine hills in Easter and low-lying coastline in west.
• The plain is very flat, much is only a few metres above sea level.
• Continuously inhabited since prehistoric.

• Human resources also play their part in development in coastal areas.
• As well as supply of labour, human resources include vision, skills and enterprise.
• These are critical in the transitions between stages – in case of Lancashire coastline, most recent of its transitions has been demanding.
• New uses must be found for redundant buildings & large areas of Liverpool, preston, southport and Blackpool need to be rebranded.
• Much of modern economy is about providinf services.
• Attraction & value of coast is largely to do with resources and opportunities.

Blackpool, UK

• For over 100 years, Blackpool was one of Europe’s leading coastal resorts, renowned for tower, lights & rock.
• During 18^th century it became fashionable for British rich to travel to seaside in summer, it was believed bathing in sea water could cure diseases.
• Some came to Blackpool but it remained a hamlet until first half of 19^th century.
• The railway in 1846 cut costs and time taken to reach Blackpool.
• Huge numbers of working-class began coming to Blackpool every weekend.
• In 1870s, each of the cotton textile towns of Lancashire began announcing “wakes week” when mills were shut for servicing.
• Thousands from these towns visited Blackpool during holiday period.
• Tower, promenades, piers, amusement arcades, theatres & music halls were built.
• By WWI = 4 million visitors during high season.
• During interwar years, prosperity continued and a new law that gave workers paid holiday.
• The town’s population reached almost 150,000.
• After WWII, fortunes began to decline with the advent of the package holiday and cheap air travel.
• Competition was from resorts in the Mediterranean which was also able to deliver guaranteed sun.
• Blackpool has since developed conference facilities and casinos but the town is still struggling to survive.

Benidorm, Spain

• Permanent population of 67,000.
• During summer peak season, population exceeds half a million.
• Development of Benidorm as coastal resort started in 1954 when the mayor drew up a plan of urban development.
• This took off in 1960s when it became popular with British tourists on package holidays.
• Tourist season is now all year round.
• Night life revolves around bars and clubs and is a strong pull for younger visitors.
• Within a few decades, Benidorm has transformed from a small village to an urban area of skyscraper hotels and apartment blocks, theme parks, pubs, clubs and restaurants.
• All three main beaches have ‘blue flag’ status.
• At height of season, they are some of the most densely populated parts of the world.

• Many traditional seaside resorts in UK seeking to rebrand e.g. Boscombe in Dorset.

Making waves at Boscombe, UK

• Plans to build an artificial surf reef close to Boscombe pier.
• To occupy 1 hectare.
• Made from large geotextile sand bags.
• Land-based tourist attractions around Boscombe need rejuvenation.
• Surf survey showed 77 good surfing days, but takes place on 153 days – 5,000 visits/yr.

-Reef to double good surfing days and host 10,000 visits per year.

• Estimated Cost - £1.1 million but business it brings to cancel that out.
• Actual cost - £4 million.
• Estimated to produce £10 million per year.
• Claim environmental effects =neutral – marine life thrives on beach & no effects to beach.
• Could accelerate erosion further down beach.
• Opened November 2009 – over a year late.
• Only achieved 4 of 11 design objectives.
• Closed since 2011 due to damage from boat propeller.

Topic 8.1

Structure of DNA

Nucleotide structure

Individual nucleotides of DNA are made up of:

• Sugar – Deoxyribose
• Phosphate group
• Organic base

Single-ring bases – Cytosine (C) and Thymine (T)

          OR

Double-ring bases – Adenine (A) and Guanine (G)

T=A

C=G

=Hydrogen bonds

 

                             

*These three components are combined as a result of condensation reactions to give a mononucleotide.

-Two mononucleotides may combine as a result of a condensation reaction between the deoxyribose sugar of one mononucleotide and the phosphate group of another. This new structure is a dinucleotide.

-A long chain of mononucleotides is a polynucleotide.

-It is not just DNA that contains nucleotides.

DNA structure

-In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick worked out the structure of DNA following Rosalind Franklin’s work on X-ray diffraction patterns of DNA.

-DNA is made up of two strands of nucleotides (polynucleotides).

-Each starnd is extremely long and joined together by hydrogen bonds formed between certain bases.

-Simply: Ladder – phosphate and deoxyribose molecules alternate to form the uprights and organic bases pair together to form the rungs.

 

The double helix

-The ladder-like arrangement of the two polynucleotide chains is twisted.

-The uprights of phosphate and deoxyribose wind around each other to form a double helix.

-They form the structural backbone of the DNA molecule.

-For each complete turn of the helix, there are ten base pairs.

Function of DNA

-DNA is the hereditary material responsible for passing genetic information from cell to cell and generation to generation.

-There are around 3.2 billion base pairs in DNA of a typical mammalian cell.

  This means there is an almost infinite variety of sequences of bases on the length of a DNA molecule, providing immense variety in living organisms.

How DNA molecule is adapted to its functions:

• Very stable and can pass between generations without change.
• Two separate strands, joined with only hydrogen bonds, allowing the to separate during DNA replication and protein synthesis.
• Extremely large molecule, therefore carries an immense amount of genetic information.
• Having base pairs within the helical cylinder of deoxyribose-phosphate backbone, genetic information is protected from being corrupted by outside chemical and physical forces.
• The function of DNA depends on the sequence of the base pairs it posseses.

Time goes by, so...quickly?

Hello all, (If you've redirected here from my old blog - welcome!)

Today, I somehow managed to come across the blog I started to write in 2010 (it was quite short lived, hopefully this attempt will be a little better). Some of the posts were really cringey, but they also gave me a chance to reflect on everything that's happened since then, and it was strangely rewarding.
I like to think i've grown up a lot from that sometimes moody, often immature, utterly impossible to maintain a civil conversation with 15 year old I was back then (funny, I seem to remember saying a similar thing back then about my 13 year old self...).

Now that I have a clear path ahead of me (well, besides the obstacles such as exams, making the grade, decisions about universities..), i'm a lot more focussed, and, as such, much more aware of what I need to do to get where I want to go!

This is turning into a bit of a life coaching post.....

Anyway, just in case anyone is wondering how my day went:
I woke up, as usual, at 6:10am, had breakfast, got dressed, got ready for school etc.
Got to the bus stop at 7:20 and arrived at school around 8am.
Here, i spent 40 minutes researching universities and doing a bit of biology revision.
Form time was the usual - register, notices...
9am marked first lesson, geography for me, this consisted of planning an answer to an exam question.
10am - second lesson, free period, I spent this doing biology revision and teaching my friend standard deviation.
11am - Break time!
11:20am - biology - We're in the middle of an ISA and were drawing our graphs today.
12:20pm - history - filling in a table about various US presidents.
1:20pm - Lunch
2:00pm - Form time - notices, chilling
2:25pm - Free period - I spent this doing the geography homework i'd been set 1st lesson.

at 3:25 I took a slow walk to the bus stop, finally arriving home at 4:30, where I almost walked straight into the plumber (our boilers packed up and we've had no hot water since friday!)

This evening i've done some more biology revision (i'm pretty determined to do well in this ISA, in case you hadn't guessed).

Now i'm typing this post - obviously.

Well, that's my day, pretty boring when you look at it like that, but it was actually quite enjoyable.

Hopefully, it won't be long before I look less like this:

Revising, summer 2012

 Although, i'd much rather be revising outside in the sun, than inside listening to the rain as I am now!

And more like this:

Oh, just in case any of you want to see my original blog with all those cringey posts, here it is: http://jodzter-life.blogspot.co.uk/
And with that, I shall depart.

Alons-y! x