This is savannah

Met a few students from Kenya at university yesterday. They were really interesting to talk with. It took me back to a trip I took to Kenya many years ago, when I went on safari in the Masai Mara national park, stunning place.

Blue is the colour

Near Maui island in Hawaii is Molokini.

It is a crater from an underwater volcano and will either grow to become a new island or sink beneath the water as the ocean level rises due to global warming.

Colorful sports jersey

This jersey is being used in a well-known sport. Which sport?

Looking south

In one of my classes today we looked at a shop in Manhattan in which every item was free.

Niagara Falls is in New York!

In one of my classes tomorrow we will be looking at New York, so please take a look at the map of New York state.

No climbing!

It was given the name Ayers Rock by white settlers to Australia, but the original aboriginal name is Uluru, which is fast becoming the common name.

Not so many years ago hundreds of people would climb this rock every day, it only took a few hours. But the local people objected strongly since, for them, Uluru is a sacred site, so now hardly anyone climbs, and most people enjoy this fantastic site from the ground or the air.

Tahiti, the main island of French Polynesia

Many of you will know of my liking for the island of Bora Bora, which I think is the jewel of French Polynesia, but the main island, Tahiti, is also blessed with stunning beauty.

Normally I don’t get excited about statistics, but today my number of viewers passed the magic 100,000.

Thanks to all my students, and everyone in blogland.

dendrobates azureus is the real name

There are green frogs, orange frogs, red and yellow frogs, purple frogs, and even translucent frogs and now you can see a blue frog.

Many species of frog are in danger, it is thought that about half of all frog species will soon be extinct. There are two reasons: loss of habitat, and a disease that is spreading to  frogs all round the world.

The frog’s skin contains a protective oil, and in this oil can be found some incredible chemicals. Now one of these chemicals is used to treat cancer.

More than 1 billion people live here

In one of my classes we looked at the inspirational story of Babar Ali, a 16 year old Indian, who is headmaster in a school with 800 students.

He lives in West Bengal, which you can see on the map above (if you click on the map you can see a bigger version).