social science of reindeer and other facts

Just for christmas here are some quick links to the social science of reindeers and other facts.

Are reindeer an endangered species?
find out the answer and more about their natural habitat and biology on the free ARKive website
they have some great images.
and videos . See this example of  a herd in the summer.  They look quite different because they are moulting and are dancing around as they get bitten a lot by midges!

Is reindeer herding economically important.
In recent years statistics from the Reindeer Herders Association in Finland show declining trends. Find out about ownership and meat production from their website
The International centre for Reindeer Husbandry has online guides to other countries such as Sweden and Norway which discuss the extent and importance of reindeer to the economy.
It also has a link to a free reindeer warning app!
The Arctic Council also has some documents on its website from projects which have discussed the importance of reindeer to the suvival of indigenous arctic peoples.
The Arctic Institute of North America provides free access to some of its articles.

Rudolf the red nosed reindeer!
Robert Lewis May 1926, while working for Montgomery Ward and Company in Chicago as an advertising editor, created 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' as a Christmas promotion for the company. The original is now held in Dartmouth College
NPR has a digital version online from a programme it made in 2013

Finally see some historic films of reindeers in lapland and london! via Pathe film

Chinese aid to Africa- what are the facts?

 China has become  the biggest donor of aid to Africa- read more about the background in this interesting article from the Conversation.

 Traditionally OECD countries have been the biggest donors. The OECD website has data on this and some discussion and data on the role increasing played by China

China Aid data website is monitoring from AidData has developments and has visualizations.Search by projects

The  China Africa initiative from Johns Hopkins University was established in 2014. and colects information on investment, aid and chinese involvement in all sectors.

other sources of reports on the role of China include:

 China Development Bank - which has some information in English

Council on Foreign relations

Rand

Brookings Institution.

African Development Bank also has some earlier papers on the aid effectiveness

let it snow! find out more about snow using our academic research links!

This week snowfall has effected the UK

 How cold is it where you are? compare your location with 50 other cities worldwide using  this calculation tool from the BBC website

Did it snow more in the past?

Look at the historic weather charts from the UK Met office . the site has monthly time series data often from the early 1900s onwards which measures.Mean daily maximum temperature ; Mean daily minimum temperature; days of frost, total rainfall, total sun
The UK government  also has these in excel spreadsheets on its website
They have a special snow page with quick facts and figures on snowfall, days of snow . You can also see this handy infographic on white christmases in the UK

Snow and climate change
in 2016 the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology published a paper on the historic trends and future projects for snow in the UK
National Snow and Ice Data Center. has datasets on glacier and ice coverage
it also has reports and monitoring data on sea ice and glaciers.
The World Meterological Organization (WMO) also has evidence of the impact of  climate change on ice

The beauty of snow and ice
The science of snowflakes from Time magazine has some scientific facts and stunning scientific images
The Guardian has a photoessay of the first photographic images by Wilson A. Bentley

 For images see the Natural History Museum (remember to check copyright) they have stoat sandwich and images of animals in the snow.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities -useful resources

The 3rd December was International Day of Persons with Disabilities


a keylegal instrument is the

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006)

 

The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is the body of independent experts which monitors implementation of the Convention by the States Parties.This has reports and status

Links to official documents can be found by UNBISNet


· General Assembly Documents

· General Assembly Resolutions

· Economic & Social Council Documents

· Secretary-General’s Reports

For information on the lives of disabled people in the UK
See the recent report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission which found the disabled were still second class citizens
The Office for Disability Issues has news, policy papers and documents

The Office for National Statistics has a variety of publications and bulletins on disability. These include data on the number and range of disabilities experienced. The Papworth Trust produced a good quality fact pack about disabled people in the Uk in 2016