“Aided by the rise of new digital communication technologies, as well as an Internet that allows messages and images to be distributed anonymously, episodes of cyberbullying have become much more common. According to a 2013 review of cyberbullying research, online harassment can take two primary forms: direct cyberbullying in which threatening or insulting messages or images are sent directly to the intended victim and indirect or relational cyberbullying, which involves the spread of rumours and/or demeaning content behind the victim's back. And there are a variety of ways for cyberbullying to happen, including texting, emails, or through posts relayed through social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.”

(What Makes Cyberbullying So Popular? By Romeo Vitelli. Psychology Today. Available in https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mediaspotlight/201808/ what-makes-cyberbullying-so-popular.)

  Water, Water Everywhere

Approximately 70 percent of our planet is covered in water. In total, that’s approximately 1,260 million trillion liters, which sounds like an enormous amount, but less than one percent of it can easily be used as drinking water. A major amount, 97 percent, is salt water, and two percent is glacier ice. Scientists and politicians are becoming increasingly worried about the amount of water, and predict that there will be wars in the future to control our water supplies.

      The world’s population is growing rapidly, and the need for water in industry and agriculture is enormous. Climate change also adds to the problem: droughts restrict access to water even further, and flooding can pollute supplies of drinking water. Furthermore, these threats to our environment are probably only going to get worse. Already 1.2 billion people live in areas with limited access to water, and the UN predicts that, by 2025, this figure will rise to 1.8 billion, or two thirds of the world’s population.

      But the problem isn’t only how much water we need, it’s also how we clean and store it. In the US, for example, water facilities are old and inefficient, and it’s hugely expensive to improve them. In China, the government knows it will need to spend $850 billion to improve its water infrastructure. Currently, India can only clean about 30 percent of its wastewater, meaning that people risk disease when they drink from polluted sources. Some countries filter sea water to make their drinking water. But this process is also very expensive, so it isn’t viable in many countries.

      We can’t give up on this problem, however, because without water we can’t survive. Thankfully, there are already some excellent water purification products operating on a small scale, which are already helping people whose access to water is limited.

      The “Slingshot” is a new water purifier, about the size of a small refrigerator, and is the creation of American inventor Dean Kamen. The purifier works by heating the water, which kills anything harmful. It can purify even the dirtiest water, requires minimal electricity, and can clean up to 1,000 liters a day. The “Slingshot” is already helping communities in several countries, including South Africa and Mexico. It will soon provide a cheap and safe supply of water in many other places where poverty prevents access to clean water.

      Dean Kamen believes that every human should have the right to clean water every day. Hopefully, with more devices like the “Slingshot”, there will soon be more water to go around.

The London Underground

      The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground, or by its nickname the Tube) is a public rapid transit system serving London, England and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom.

    The Underground has its origins in the Metropolitan Railway, the world's first underground passenger railway. Opened in January 1863, it is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines; the first line to operate underground electric traction trains, the City & South London Railway in 1890, is now part of the Northern line. The network has expanded to 11 lines, and in 2017/18 carried 1.357 billion passengers, making it the world's 11th busiest metro system. The 11 lines collectively handle up to 5 million passengers a day.

      Despite its name, only 45% of the system is underground in tunnels, with much of the network in the outer environs of London being on the surface.

      As of 2015, 92% of operational expenditure is covered by passenger fares.  

Early years 

     The idea of an underground railway linking the City of London with the urban centre was proposed in the 1830s, and the Metropolitan Railway was granted permission to build such a line in 1854. To prepare construction, a short test tunnel was built in 1855 in Kibblesworth, a small town with geological properties similar to London. This test tunnel was used for two years in the development of the first underground train, and was later, in 1861, filled up. The world's first underground railway opened in January 1863 between Paddington and Farringdon using gas-lit wooden carriages hauled by steam locomotives.

     While steam locomotives were in use on the Underground there were  I  health reports. There were many instances of passengers collapsing whilst travelling, due to heat and pollution, leading for calls to clean the air through the installation of garden plants. The Metropolitan even encouraged beards for staff to act as an air filter. There were other reports claiming beneficial outcomes of using the Underground, including the designation of Great Portland Street as a "sanatorium for [sufferers of ...] asthma and bronchial complaints", tonsillitis could be cured with acid gas and the Twopenny Tube cured anorexia.

       During the war many tube stations were used as air-raid shelters. On 3 March 1943, a test of the air-raid warning sirens, together with the firing of a new type of anti-aircraft rocket, resulted in a crush of people attempting to take shelter in Bethnal Green Underground station. A total of 173 people, including 62 children, died, making this both the worst civilian disaster of World War II, and the largest loss of life in a single incident on the London Underground network.

      A different kind of accident occurred on 28 February 1975, a southbound train on the Northern City Line failed to stop at its Moorgate terminus and crashed into the wall at the end of the tunnel, in the Moorgate tube crash. There were 43 deaths and 74 injuries, the greatest loss of life during peacetime on the London Underground.

    A few years later, on 18 November 1987, fire broke out in an escalator at King's Cross St. Pancras tube station. The resulting fire cost the lives of 31 people and injured a further 100. London Underground were strongly criticised in the aftermath for their attitude to fires underground, and publication of the report into the fire led to the resignation of senior management of both London Underground and London Regional Transport. To comply with new safety regulations issued as a result of the fire, and to combat graffiti, a train refurbishment project was launched in July 1991. 

(Adapted from: https://en.wikipedia.org)