This is our first oral presentation
of the course. This year I have decided to do it with my sister again because
is easy to work with she although we disagree in some things… anyway, at the
end we do what I want (it’s not a joke).
Well, this time the presentation is
about British Humor! We chose this topic because we (both, not only me) like
the kind of humor that is ironic and we love sarcasm. British humor, in
addition, is also a clever humor so we love theme.
As a self-evaluation, I think that
one of the things that I have to improve is our pronunciation and also, I have
to be more relaxed and try to not read of the paper.
This is the video of the presentation
and although the quality is not very good, we hope you enjoy it!!
Palestinian
poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh has been sentenced to death. This case started
when the religious police of Palestine, arrested Fayadh in 2013 on account of a
complaint from a Saudi citizen that accused him of obscene comments against
God, against the Prophet Muhammad and against the Saudi Estate and for
propagate atheism in public places.
He was
newly arrested in 2014, when prosecutors accused him of several charges of
blasphemy for his book of love poemsWithin
Instruction published ten years ago. Prosecutors also accuse him
of mocking God and the prophets of Coran. He was sentenced to four years
in prison and 800 lashes and, in this case, the fiscal refuse the death
penalty by repentance of the accused poet. But this last November, another
judge reviewed the case and now, he has been sentenced to death as he considered
that the repentance was not enough.
Important
cultural figures from different countries have joined to protest against this
death sentence, misfortune that unfortunately adds the death of the father of
the writer after suffering a heart attack last week when he heard the
news.
Amongst
those who has supported Fayadh, now refugee in Saudi Arabia, we can
find Chris Decon, the British
poet Carol Ann Duffy, the British writer David Hare, the Egyptian
novelist Ahdaf Soueif, the Sirius poet Adonis, the Irish writer Paul
Muldoon, the historian of the United Kingdom Simon Schama and many more in
addition to a dozen of organizations and associations from the United Kingdom,
the United States and from Africa, who
have signed a statement defending the freedom of the poet and the freedom of
expression.
I choose this
new because it show us that, nowadays, in the 21st century, not everybody in
everywhere has the rights that should have. At least in our country or in the
Europe Union, is unthinkable that someone could be arrested for give his
opinion and even less, that this person could be sentenced to death! This shows
us that we are not as advanced as we thought (although a country as the
United Sates, one of the "most moderns" the death penalty still
exists). For this, I agree with those intellectuals who has risen against this
because is an injustice in capital letters.
One of the main conclusions of the European Environmental Agency is that
the European Union have to impose most ambitious new policy measures if
they want to achieve the objectives proposed for 2050. Although in recent years
the current legislation has improved a lot of water and air quality, these
measures are "insufficient" because there are still many challenges,
among which highlight the following ones as the most important:
Among the major European challenge we find the health of the population,
in danger for theatmospheric
pollution. Currently, over than the 20% of the European urban population is
living exposed to high levels of pollution, higher than those that the
legislation required. And important fact to remember is that exposure to high
levels of pollution was the responsible of 430.000 premature deaths in Europe
last year.
In second place, we find the need of reduce the emission of gases
that contribute to the greenhouse effect. And finally, the report also warn
about the exposure to traffic noise, the noise coming from the industrial
activities,... that also was the responsible of nearly 10.000 cases of
premature deaths in the community.
I think that is important to, among all, try to reduce our ecological footprint
because we are destroying our planet. In fact, the report warns us that if we
don't stop this, the natural phenomena will be more and more aggressive because
of the climate change, and this will lead to the pollution of the water, of the
air and also, of our health! For this, we must remedy the damage we are doing,
it's like we were digging our own graves: we are the only ones responsible for
climate change and also, were the only ones affected.
I know it's difficult to change our way of life because we are costumed
to this kind of life and probably, most of us think: "who care, when the
planet stop holding us I’ll be more than death". But this is not idea, we
are the responsible of what is happening and is in our hand stop this. It's not
necessary that one day to another you stop using your car, but there are plenty
of minimal things that you can do every day. For example, instead of poured
down toxic chemical wastes as paint, motor oil,... you can depose them in the
specific sites, you can by local goods that reduce the air pollution, I'm sure
you can use less electricity, lees water and also, produce less waste! All of
this are simple things that everybody can do in their daily routines so, if you
think that break the harm we are doing to our planet was a difficult thing, you
were wrong!
If you think about Christmas Lottery spot, for sure, you will remember about the one of the last year in wich Manuel enters in his frequent bar, thta has win the lottery, for take a coffe. At the beggining of the spot, manuel is sad because he's the only one that hasn't buy the ticket of the lottery, but his friend, Antonio (thta is also the boss of the bar) give him one of the win numbers. The mesage of this spot, apart of the solidarity of Christmas, was that "the greatest reward is share". So, if you
remember this famous spot, the one that they have prepared for us this year...
Don't you ever think about what
happened with Antonio and Manuel, the protagonist of the last year spot? Will
Antonio still have opened the bar? Well, no longer answer for all: the life of excess of Manuel has taken him ahead. Or at least, this is what the new
short of Tuti Fernandez represents (in a comic way).
"The
idea came in a meal. We were talking about the announcement of this year, that
didn't convince us because it was similar than the story of the last year"
said the director, that after this meal he called to the characters of the last
year and they started to record the spot.
In it,
Antonio (played by the same actor, Julian Valcárcel), appears alone, sitting on
the bench in a garden having a conversation with her friend or at least, what
remains of him and talking about what had happen in a year: Manuel get
divorced, after win the lottery they travel to Ibiza,... and as he say
"800,000 euros we have spent, you and me in a year, 800,000 euros, which
is not easy... It has merit!" And now, Antonio is in front of
a psychiatric to take the ashes of Manuel friend to his wife
If in
2014, the moral was "The greatest reward is to share" and after 365
days and spending 800,000 euros, the new moral could not be other than:
"Remember, if you got the lottery this year, not waste it".
People get older, nobody can discuss this, your hair will turn gray, your skin will be fill with wrinkles and blemishes, you will have flabby skin hanging and much more but you don't have to worrie about that, live happen! Even so, if you are one of these people who want to stay forever young or only lengthen your youth, there is an endless list of thing you can do thta are improving year by year and becoming more and more popular starting for dying you hair and ending with sugery. The next image show us how and why the industry of the Botox and the plastic surger is increaing year by year. Despite the high prices and the fact that both men and women think that the ideal age is 31 years old, year by year, more and more people is trying all kind of treatmens for fight agais time, and how we should imagine, women are more sucsceptible to hide the marks of the age: 56% of women are worried about the physical apearance compared to only the 36% of men. For explain this we have to find the answer in the pressure that society makes over our appearance: everybody (although some more than other and the more are the women) are always thinking about what people say or thing about him, and for this, women especially, are always trying anti-aging products and also for this, more women than men (42% over 18%) considere to try the plastic surgery for hide the "imperfections" that the age cause to your body.
I don't think that get older is a bad thing or something you should worrie about or be ambarrased of, it's true thta evrybody love being young: you still have a life to live, you still have a lot of experinces, vives,... But I think that I couldn't bear to be forever young, I mean, as I say, there is a lot of thing thta you can do, but there's also handful more that you couldn't. Each stage of your life would be different of the others and live is to go through all of them and live what you get in each.
We all know that, nowadays, beauty is in the eye of society: so many
people are influenced by what society represents as beautiful. Every year,
millions of people spend more and more money to change their outward
appearance. One of the guilty of this is the media that presents the society
with unrealistic body types that promote how people want to look like
especially, women. We spend so much time (and money) trying to look like what
society wants that we begin to see others and ourselves as what is presented
physically rather than who a person is, but what a woman is supposed to look
like based on society’s perception? Many of us will try to find this answer looking
in fashion magazines, beauty magazines,... but if you look carefully, you will
find out how fake and unrealistic they are, I have never seen a person like
that in the street but, however, I see how many women try to copy this images. And how the fashion industry manages for control, what they say, the canons ob beauty? One of their main allies is the Photoshop. Kilometric
legs, flat tummy, illuminated faces, perfects waist and smiles without wrinkles
are some of the miracles that appears in this magazines and that can be
achieved Photoshop, a digital program that revolutionized the way we conceive
an image.
I
don’t think that the use of Photoshop is a “bad thing” I mean, you can improve
your images, but the problem comes when you stop
to get perfect images to have unrealistic images. And this is a big problem
because it determines what people think of herself: everybody wants to look
like models or celebrities on magazines, a thing that it’s nearly impossible
because neither they are that way, but it makes you to live always conditioned
by this images, you will never be plased with yourself if you are always trying to look like "how you should look" (according to the fashion industry).
It's pretty
clear that the use of the Photoshop especially in the fashion world is not a
novelty but, however, never fails to impress us when images with an abuse of
this tool come to light. A perfect example
of this is the case of a picture of the actress Imma Cuesta that appeared a few
weeks ago in the newspaper "El
Pais". The actress has called "an invention" what the newspaper
had done. In the message that she give she said that she didn't feel self-conscious,
but outraged as a woman. I think that this complain is giving an important
message that call us to think over what are the canons of beauty that we
should follow and also say to usa that we should be more independent of fashions and stereotypes. After
releasing her retouch on social networks, other actress has supporter Imma for
his bravery.
Who has
never been dropped food on the floor, has taken and has eaten consoling
themselves with the law of the five seconds, wishing that if the food hits the floor and you snatch it up in less than five seconds, it's safe to eat? I think that it has happened to
everyone once in live (as minimum)... But it's the food really safe or should we throw it away or wash it off? Are we believing in this unwritten rule as an excuse to salvage the last piece thta left of a cookie? For years, we have use this rule as a "sanitary excuse" to eat what has fallen, but I have a good new for all of us: we can keep your
conscience clear because an study ha prove that this myth is true!
Anthony Hilton, a
teacher of microbiology in the University of Aston, has lead an interesting
study for analyze if the "law of the five
seconds" it's true and according to which, you can only eat the food that
had been dropped on the floor if it has been there less than five seconds, time
for which the food is not contaminated. This investigation was carried out with
all kind of food as toast, pastries, cookies or candies fallen on
three types of floors: tiles, laminate and carpet and between an intervals of 3
and 30 seconds.
This study has demonstrated
that the time is a key factor for the transmition of the bacterium to the food,
but the kind of floor is another factor to consider. To the astonishment of
many and for the fate of many others, the researches found that in five
seconds, it's not possible that the food "catch" batteries and also,
that the floor with less possibilities of pollutes the foods is the carpet, the
tiles, by contrast, are the best allies of the bacteries. The texture of the
food also influence, is not the same dropping a toast with butter and jam
than dropping a piece of bread.
So next time, when
you drop a cookie down, pick it up, blow a little and you stick it in your
mouth in hopes of having eliminated the bacteria that could have caught, you
can be sure that your health will not be in danger.
Unless you are a "female Instagram
junkie" you probably won't know who is Essena O'Neill. She's an australian
19 year old teenager model with more than 612.000 Instagram followers, around
250.000 subscribers on YouTube and close to 60.000 Snapchat contacts .She
earned an income from social media, but she has chose to give up with her
"social media celebrity" career when she quit from this different
platforms describing it as "contrived perfection made to get
attention", and called for others to quit social media of their lives.
She has deleted over 2000 photos with no real
purpose other than self promotion. Without releasing, she have spent majority
of her teenage life being addicted to social media, social approval, social
status and her physical appearance. Social media (especially how she used it) isn’t
"something real": it's contrived images and edited clips ranked
against each other. It's a system based on social approval, likes, validations
in views, success in followers,... O'Neill accepted that she was consumed by
it, she spent the majority of her day aimlessly scrolling, she used to spent
hours on YouTube, on Tumblr,... I think that the message that Essena is giving
is very important, how can we see ourselves and our true purpose or talents if
we are constantly viewing others? Many of us are in so deep we don't realise
it, we don't realise the power and the impact that it has on our lives.
Now O'Neill is focusing on a new project called"Let's be Game Changers"with witch she wants to start a movement where someone's worth isn't determinate
by their physical attributes or by the social media influence, as Essena sais,
she wanted to "give people the opportunity to be free, grow, learn and
explore while challenging their own beliefs". With this new project she
also want to explain the reality behind their pictures. The results has no waste,
I mean, although we probably knew the purpose of her images, it surprised to
hear so sincerely from the mouth of the protagonist. She has uploaded some
pictures with interesting comments. For example, one of the latest photos that
she had show to us, appears a "selfie" of herself heavily made-up, and
she comment that she spent over two hours making up herself for take more than fifty different pictures for just publish one in Instagram and promote a make-up brand and, the worts of all is thta aftert all that work an all that time, she went to sleep because she was ill!
She has turn around all social media and a lot of celebrities as models,
singers,... have begun to upload pictures of themselves without makeup or
without combing and also, a lot of "internet celebrities" has started
to explain through their pictures why did they take it, why did they upload on
iInstagram or in any social platform,... with the hastag #SocialMediaIsNotRealLife
in support with Essena.
I think that the reflection that Essena O'Neill has done is very
important, I mean, it show to us the role that social media play in our daily
live and, in some people, it's excessively important and this is a problem,
it's not health be so engaged and a good example is Essena, that had
acknowledged that she has waste his youthfulness worried about things as simple
as the number of likes that you get in a picture or the number of followers you
have. I also use this kind of social platforms and I'm glad that I can say that
I can live without them, I'm not constantly cheeking them or
uploading pictures. You waste a lot of time scrolling and seeing pictures,
comments,... of everyone you want and how you should imagine, in second of
batxillerat, we don't have so much time. Anyway, I think that we don't need to
go so far and put off of our lives this kind of platforms because they also
have good things, but I believe that if you think that they are doing more harm
than good, you should think about what Essena O'Neill has said.
My
sister loves cinema and she is always watching all kinds of films of all ages.
She knows a lot about the actors and actresses, about the directors and even,
about the scriptwriters!!! Who else know who the scriptwiter of a film is? It's
incredible...we can say that she is a "cinema geek" (but with all the
love). For this reason, she is always telling me which films I should see or I
should know about, I mean, the typical best ones of all the story of the cinema
and also, which films I shouldn't see because they are “bad”.
As you can
imagine, we always have quarrellings and problems for decided what movie watch
on Saturday's night and even, for decided which TV series watch: we have very
different likes and it's very difficult to reach an agreement. Most of the time
we end each one with a different laptop in different rooms seeing different
things... Anyway, I also have to say that sometimes (only sometimes) I listen
to my sister and I don't regret. For example, I have accompanied her to the
cinema several times and I have to say that she knows to choose the film: I
love "Relatos Salvajes", "The Sniper" and especially, the
last one that we have seen: "The Martian".
The Martian is an
American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and based upon the book
with the same name of the writer Andy Weir. The main character is starring by
Matt Damon and there also appear great actors and actresses such as Jessica
Chastain, Kate Maran or Michael Peña.
The plot is the
next: in the year 2035 the crew of Ares III, a manned mission to Mars, has established
a temporary base on the planet where they have to stay for some time while they
study the planet’s surface. However, the crew is forced to abandon the base to
escape a massive Martian storm and while they are evacuating, one of the
astronauts is lost and the crew left him because it seems that he's dead, but
he has survived. Now he is alone in Mars and nobody know that he is alive. Although
at first he thought that he would die in the planet then, he realize that he
can't give up and with his botanical and technological knowledges and also,
with a lot of humor, he manage to solve his mains problems: the food and the
water and also, contact with the NASA for his rescue plan.
One of
the things that I most like is the way that he solve his problems I mean, he is
able to “create” an orchid on Mars for plant potatoes "in a planet where nothing grows" as he said, he is able to “make”
water, he invents a set of words to communicate with the NASA and, even so the
problems and concerns, he have time for joking!
I really enjoy
this film and it's weird because I'm not very kind of science fiction films but
I think that this movie is different, I mean, it's not hard-boiled science
fiction film because there also are dramatic scenes and others that
differentiate this film from the genre. Another think that I like of this film,
as I have already said, is the humor, the irony and sarcasm of the astronaut
that makes the story very entertaining and wonderful, a thing that seemed to be
impossible in a film where a character is alone in a planet!
I would like to end up with a funny fact and is that thre are a number of films like the onethta I've just commend, "Salvar al Soldado Ryan" or "Interstellar" where Matt Damond has to be rescued.
Humor is a way to look at things from the mirthful side, it's the quality that makes something laughable or amusing, is the ability to perceive, enjoy, and express what is comical and, in my opinion, is one of the most important qualities for umans. Humor is everywhere: laughter is one of the first things you do as a newborn and, if all goes well, it will be one of the last things you do before die. We only have to look at the business industry to see the importance of humor: they are constantly creatung funny advertisments, funny products,... in order to get our attention.
Is natural thta people approach pleasure and avoid pain, hence, the sence of humor influences many of our daily decisions and it helps us face the thoughest situations in life. As you know, we comfort with a lot of daily problems that cannot be solved easily and on time, but if you lead on in humor, those harsh times will be bearable, you will be able to llok at the problems from a different angle. And these are not the only benefits of humor: it also helps people psychological and physical wellbeing: it helps you cope with stress, adversity and deal with pain and physical adversities and laughter, benefit your circulation, lungs and muscles. And let's not forget the social benefits og humor! As Marilyn Monroe said: "If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything". How true is it? Bithing is more attractuve than a sense of humor, for both mean and women. Nothing relieves tension like laughing and laughing with others increasing bonding. So, not surprisingly, funny people recieve positive attention and admiration, your ability to create and appreciate humor also influences who wants to date or befriend you. Everybody has the joking family member thta they always look forward to seeing, everybody remembers the kid in school thta always made the class break into a laughter and everybody remebers and loves having a fun conversation with someone once in a while! So, we can say that having sense of humor is one of the highly desirable attributes; everyone wants somene with a good sense of humor by their side.
Summing up, humor is an important tool in social relations: only think about how much easier can be an unconfortable situation when you joke about it. Humor is absolutly necessary, having a good sense of humor can make life easier: try going through a day without so much as a chinkle and you will find that it's downright impossible so, for an easier life: smile, laugh and make others laugh!
My intention was talked about one o my favorites films when I was little, "Alice in Wonderful" and, searching some information about this film, I have found something very interesting and very special!
Living in an age where most of the work is done through a computer, makes us forget that it hasn't been that way always, not many years ago, all used to be done by hand. Nowadays all is very simple and easy but before it wasn't. Let's put the example of the Disney movies. The Disney company have created a lot of movies based on drawings made by hand. Before, create a character involves a very hard work by many people and they have to lean on they imagination and creativity and use unconventional tools. But nowadays, it has changed: a drawer can make everything with a computer in an easy way.
Anyway, what I would like to talk today is not about the chance in the cartoon industry, I would like to talk about the character of Alice of the film "Alice in Wonderland". This character required a real model so, in this case, we can say that Alicia is real, not only in the imagination of the drawer but in the real life.
Some days ago were released some pictures never seen before of the animation process of the films Alice in Wonderful in 1951. With this film, the drawers decided to try a new technique that consisted in taking pictures to a model and then, make the draws by pencil upon the pictures and, in this way, create the animations.
The model was Kathryn Beaumont, a 10 years old girl that gave life to Alicia's character. The main majority of the scenes of the pictures were recreated in the study with differents decorations. All of this supposed a really hard work because they only get 23 or 24 seconds of film by week and for this, this is considered one of the most special animations of the Disney Company and they decided not to do it again: the final costs outweigh the budgets. Even so, we could say that it worth because the movie was highly successful and in fact, Kathryn Beaumont did Wendy's voice in Peter Pan film, in 1998 was nominated "Disney Legend", in 2010 she did the voice of Kairi in the video game "Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep" and repeated this role in 2013 for the continuation of this video game: "Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX." This fact has surprised me a lot because my older brother loved this video games, he used to play with it a lot and we didn't have any idea of this! And she continued playing Alicia and Wendy's roles in differents performances in Disney Land and she also had appeared in some advertisements until 2005, when she was replaced by Hynden Walch. But even having this curriculum in the "acting world", Kathryn work as a teacher in a primary school for over 30 years.
I think it's gonna be difficult to talk about my dreams because I don't know wich one explain...anyway, here we go!
Like many people I have lots (but loooots) of dreams so we should talk in plural rather than in singular about my dreams. I think that having dreams (or like in many cases, lots of dreams) it’s wonderful because these dreams can make your life go round. Whatever you do or try can be for making them come true. But, even having so many dreams and as I've already told you, I don’t know which ones explain but, after been like fifteen minutes with these email in white, I think that it would be nice to talk about these ones that are “nearly”, in a manner of speaking, to come true, and they are all who are related with my future studies, so here it goes! Next year I would like to go to the university and my dream is study a dual degree: international relations and journalism. It could not be a dream because it is a university degree as any other, but it is because at least, last year, the cut off mark was a 12.46 so I think that I should try to do my best this year… The other part of this dream is that this degree is only done in Madrid so I would like to go to study there. In fact, this is another of my dreams: I would like to go to study to Madrid, my brother is studying there and he loves it so, why not try it? Like I already know that this “first dream” is difficult I have a second dream that is like “the plan B”. If for anything, you know, something as simple as the mark, I can’t study this career, I would like to study publicity or something related with this career and of course, I also would like to go, Madrid. Anyway, if for whatever I can’t go to Madrid, I also have a “plan B” that it would go to Barcelona that it would be cool, too. And finally, related with these two dreams, I have two more (the list is endless, I know) that are the next: the first one would be go on an Erasmus! A lot of friends of my brother and even, some of my cousins, have already done it and all of them have had great experiences so I would like to try it and I don’t care where I go, I’m sure that I would be ok anywhere. And yes now, last but not least of my dreams would be take a gap year after my studies (whatever I study) to go to the United States for work as an au pair! So to end now, I think that these dreams would be “the best ones” or maybe, the more “workable” for my studies because another option would be go to a football university I mean, It would be perfect go to Finland or to the United States (where the best male teams are) for play football in a professional way while you are studying your university degree, but this is another story…
Graduation
from the high school is a major milestone but... what's next? What does our
future hold?
Maybe, we can
think that finish this stage, finish Batxillerat, is a major goal but I think
that it's more simply than this, I think that is another step toward other
future achievements, an important step, but only another. Anyway, is something
that may scare us because it’s the day you leave the "predictable
routine" of the "undergraduate life and the day you need to seriously
consider a terrifying question: what's next? Or in my case: career A or career
B?
I have seen the TED videos talking about how to succeed and I have to say that I agree with what Angela Lee Duckworth say, that If there is no motivation to doing anything, nobody will want to make their goals important in their life. Grit is passion and persistence that can help you to accomplish your goals, nobody will get even close to accomplishing anything without "grit". I honestly think students of every kind should have grit for themselves because your talent, your marks,...would not be anything without grit, without motivation: you can be the smartest person in the world, but that doesn't mean you would reach all your goals because you need to be motivated in order to do something.In fact. I think something very similar to Duckworth's: you don't have to make your failures an unnecessary obstacle in your path or see it like a failure or a drop, you have to transform them into a step that will take you higher towards your goal. Those who are most motivated can turn their mistakes into leaps forward, into greater lessons learned.
Maybe, the problem is that nowadays, people think that being successful is about having a lot of money or being famous, but it isn't: be successful it's about chasing your objectives and dreams and being happy with what you do and more important, being happy with yourself. Grit helps a lot by achieving your goals, but I think that you only would be successful if you know what you want in life.
When people talk about Chernobyl, nobody expects to read or see anything related with adjectives like fascinating, wonderful or fantastic… but today is not one of that days. One of the biggest nuclear accident of the mankind history has created an area uninhabitable for the humans but not for animals and plants, that they have increased the number of specimens. Chernobyl is, nowadays, a radioactive natural paradise. Last week, a team of scientists published in the magazine “Current Biology” an interesting study with impressive pictures about the different animals and plants that are living in an area contaminated by a high-level radioactive. The objective of the study was analyzing the impact of the depopulation and of the radiation on plants and on the wildlife.
I think that one of the most interesting conclusions of this project was that the number of animals has increased a lot! I believe that it’s an interesting conclusion because this result show us that the human presence and his economic activities are more harmful to the environment and for the wildlife than the worst nuclear disaster… But, what’s about the radioactivity? We know that there are more animals than there were before the accident but, in which conditions? I mean, they are contaminated or no? Well, the studies show us that the answer is yes, all kind of life in this area is contaminated and in fact, the true is that there are more animals but they are also more radioactive and despite this, the diversity of species is smaller. Although it may seem a disaster for the biodiversity of the area, it isn’t because the predictions were that it wouldn’t be any kind of life in the area.
Different studies that are also appointed in this project have concluded that the main problem there aren't extravagant mutations as many imagine, but rather other smaller. The biologist Timothy Mousseau, who has been studying the area for years, has just published a very interesting informative video about these small mutations. Mousseau also explains how animals like birds or spiders have developed tumors or small deformations; for example, the insects with more radiation develop spots, the trunks of some trees have different colors than used to have,… summing up, the effects of the radiation are evident in the region but I’m afraid that not in the way we have imagined I mean, there aren’t very strange animals with to heads or fifteen legs.
Another interesting fact of this project is that some animals like wild boars, deer and lynx that live in different regions where it was assumed that the risk of contamination was lower, are also contaminated because they feed on plants and soil fungi, where radiation levels are much higher. So we can conclude that this contaminated region, apart from having become a radioactive natural paradise as I have said, is also a mine for biologist being as since the accident, different groups of researchers have made different studies in these areas.
There is Timothy Mousseau video about the mutations that some animals suffer!
Since ever, women has been discrimnated and considered inferior to mean, but in the last century and overcoast, in the last years, this is changing: now, in wester cultures, althought stills being cases of discrimination, it has almost desapperaed and it's a shame thta in other cultures women continue living considerated inferior to men. For this, I think that the fact that Nigeria has banned the female genital mutilation (a clear violation of the women rights) is a good notice that remembers us thta this discrimination and the violation of the women rights are being, bit by bit, erradicated.
The
female genital mutilation (FGM) it's the partial or complete removal of tissue
from the female genital organs, particullary the clitoris, in order to
eliminate the sexual pleasure in women considering cultural, religious or any
other reason and without any medical cause. This practice is usually done
without any medical safety, security or supervision and this practice hasn't
benefit the health of he women, is quite the opposite: it usually cause serious
problems in women health like bleedings, infections, tetanus,... and there are a
lot of women that had died in this procedure being that it's been done with
rudimental intruments like crystals, knives or razor blades. Althought Africa is one of the continets in where there are more cases of this parctice, acroding with the Europian Parliament, it's also very commond in South America. In
European conuntries is forbidden practice the genal mutilitaion and in fact, if
you have the suspicious that an african family has led his daughter to Africa
for practice the FGM, you can report it. For this, Nigeria is playing an
importnat role in the african history because is the country who has the hight number of cases of genital mutilation in all the countries of Africa and now, the country has
banned this practice. They considered that it's an
horrible crime that untill now, only could find support in the history and in
the social convencionsbut it's
deffinetly a clear vilation of the human rights of all women around the world. The new law states that those who practice or promote mutilation could face up to four years in prision and a fine of thousand dolars
Related to the accident thta takes places in a high school in Barcelona the las month, where a 13 years old boy, as a result of a psychotic break, has kill his teacher with a crossbow and has hurt some students, make you think about about the security in schools, the law system,... and also, in our society because, how we could get to that point?...
First of all, this boy will not go to a under 18 center and even, he will not be judget becuse he is under the 14 years old. This fact for the family of the death teacher it's horrible: you know who has caused his murder but nothing can be done for punish him. Front my point of view, I think thta it's necessary a change of law, this boy can and have to be, as minimum, judtget. In the other hand, we have the causes that made the teenager commit this unbeliable crime andwith this, the securuty in the schools. I think it's not necesary start to have police officers in the educational centers, revise the bags of all the students and teacher or veen, start to wear bulletproof vest but maybe, could be a goodidea start to have metal detectors for increase the secutiry.
Another thing thta has to be doneis start to promove some valors from home and from schoolsbecause if a teenager can have this kind of guns at home, it means thta something is wrong with our system or with the society. In my opinionm I believe thta one of the causes could be the violent video game. Nowadays, teenagers are exposed to this kind of video games where they can be part of a warm, kill as peple as they want,... and all of this and like we can see in this terrible case, mark and transmit valors thta can end in what happen in this school.
This term I had made the last oral presentation of the course!!! This time, Berta and I had talk about global issues and in concret, about the climate change. We chose this topic because we found it very interesting: we know what it was but we don't know why it was caused and the more important, we wnated to know what we could do for improve the situation of our planet.
Global change is produced by human activities. It means thta we are theresponsables of the pollution and the damage of the Earth. It also mena that we are who have to solve this problem and we should startnow if we want to conserv our planet and all the species thta live in it.
I have been playting football isnce I were 5 years old and altought I have practice another sports (without let playing football) definelty, football it's my favourite sport. I have been playing in differents teams but now, I'm playing in the female team of Sant Pere (thta it's good because I don't have to go far away for train). Last year we win the First Catalan League and we had the opportunity to play the Catalonian Cup thta althought we did it well, we were discalificated in quarterfinals. I think thta it was because the level of the other temas that were playing in hight categories was very good. Even that, we did our best and we went more far than we thought...Another thing of win the league was that we had the opportunity of play in a high level, in Prefered League. Is one of the highest categories for women teams, after that there's only Second and Firts National where teams like Barça, Espanyol,... are playing.
Because of this change of level, we had been training very hard and doing our best during all the season, I had invested a lot of time in my football team: we train three times a week and in addition, there are weeks that Berta and I have to go to play with the Female Catalan Selection. Also we have to go to play to Barceloina, Tarragona and even Lleida every weekend,... maybe this is the worts of that category I mean, I need a lot of time for my studies and I have to invert a part in football. Another "athwart" that have play football in this highs categories is that you have to make sacrificies I mean, maybe I can't meet with my friends or go out at night because I don't have time or because I have a match next day... but I think that it also have good things: I can stop of my routine, desconect, have fun,...during thre trainings and matches and the most important: I have new friends every year when people come and goes to one team to another.
Althought I had miss part of these season because I suffered an important knee lesson, we did, like always, our best. We have achieved the fifth position thta it's not a bad place in a classification taking into account that we have enter in this new category this same year! Besides, one of our objectives were keep on in this category and we did it and I'm sure that next season we will bee between the three firts places.
This year we are participating againg in the Ctalonian Cup and we have overcome oruself. This last weekend we payed quarterfinals and we passed it! It means that this August we are going to play agianst Barça F.C and if we win, we would be playing the final of the Catalonian Coup against Español F.C!!! I know it's very difficult, Barça have one of the better women teams, but we will try.
I can't believe what I had just find! Last year we went to Berlin for the final school trip and when we come back to Spain, I was so exciting aboiut the trip and I decided to do a diary and I had just find it. I have been reading it and Ireklinding moments that I had forgotten! So thi is a sum up of all the things we did:
TUESDAY, 22
It was the first day of the trip. In the morning, all the students met at the high school and then, we went to the airpot in Barcelona by bus. In the airport we checked in the baggage and we waited to board the plane. It took two hours to get to Berlin. Once here, we went to the hostel by bus.
When all the students and teachers were installed in the rooms, we took the first walk for Berlin and we saw the door of Brandemburg, some shops, Alexanderplatz,... Then, we went to dinner to a restaurant.
When we finished, we had free time for make what we wanted. It was one of the nights taht I like most!
WEDNESDAY, 23
We woke up early for breksfats at the hostel and then, go to the parliament of Berlín. I really liked this visit because from the top of this place you can see all Berlín. When we finished the visit, we went to the Holocaust Monument. It is in a big park and there are a lot of big rectangular estructures made of concrete. It's very shocking. Then we went to lunch. In the afternoon, we went to visiti a bunker that was made in case a nuclear bomb roll out in the city, then we went to a museam called "The history of Berlín".
After diner, we went to a carousel. It was very funny!!
THURSDAY, 24
We woke upearly too! We took a bus and we went to a concentration camp near Berlín called Sachsenhausen. Then, we went throught the turquish quarter and we see The Berlin Wall. I really liked The Berlin Wall because it's full of graffitis and it's very colorfull.
After lunch, we went to the Jewish Museum were there was a tree were you could put one wish.
At night we had free time again and it was the funiest night of the trip! It was half past night and one of my friends realized that he had lost 150€ in McDonald's at seven o'clock in the afternoon. We went to the McDonald's to tried to find the money, all of us thought that it would be imposible found the moneytwo hours later, but we went anyway. The employeds of the restaurant let us to searched the money in the rubish inside the cook. There was more than thirty full bags of rubish and when we opened the first bag the money was there! All of us started to scream and jump in the middle of the cook of McDonald's.
FRIDAY, 25
I really enjoyed this morning because we went to the Zoo! I love the zoo and the zoo of Berlín is one of the biggest zoo's in Europe. We spent all the morning in the zoo seeing all the animals, then we went to saw the Sinagoga. It's a beautiful church but we couoldn't enter because was all controled by the police. After lunch, we take a bus and we went to the last two museums of the trip; the "New Museum" and the "Museum of Pèrgamo". Both were at the "Museum Island" place where there are five different museums. In the first museum we could see Nefertititi, considerate one of the best egiptian work of art.
SATURDAY, 26
It was our last day in Berlín. We had to bee at the airpot at half past twelve so we had free time during the morning that I take advantatge for did the last shops.
We took the plane at three o'clock and we arrived to Barcelona more or less at half past five, then we took a bus and we came to the high school. The bus ride was very funny because all the students were exciting for met with the family again and we didn't stop singing.
An egyptian archeologicalmission has discovered six tombs of the pharaoinic era in the hill of the river Nile and with some trousseau that survived to the treasure hunters. With this collection of graves the necropolis is finally completed: the graves belong to the XXVI Dynasty (664-525 BC), time in wich the court established in the city of Sais, in the Nile Delta and at the other end of Egypt and where the dinasty resisted untill the Persian conquest and according to Mustafa Jalil, the leader of one of the egyptian missions that explore this are, these burials match with the architectual style of the time sayed previously.
Of the galleries and rooms of the tombs, the experts have rescued a small fortune: a collection of sarcophagi made by limestone and wood and whee the mummies where laying intact, statues representing the four sons of th God Horus (Amset, Duamuetef, Haoy and Qebehsenuf), keepers of the viscera of the mummi and some amulets in various shapes, sizes and colors and a samall wooden figueres of hawks (thta represents de God Horus).
Another importnat discovery with this area was made by an Spanish group of archielogics. A few meters from this finding, has been working for seven years a Soanish expedition lead by Alejandro Jimenez of the University of Jaen, and last March, the team plus another expedition of the University of Granada, issued an important discovery: the first evidence o breast cancer in the history, found in one of the skeletons of a woman who lived 4200 years ago and that was buried in one of the tombs.
This last day of league in the Liga Adelante (Second division) has left a lot to talk. In these last matches were decided wich teams will play next year in firts division, wich teams will remain in the same division and wich teams will down to Second B, and one of the most important matches were played in Montilivi, Girona. With only win the match, Girona would have been one of the teams that the next year will be play in firts division. Everything pointed that this could happen but there was a dramatic end in Girona. The Lugo team directed by José María Sánchez, left no party for the Girona team thanks to a goal of Paul Knight in the injury time that suppossed the final tie. The polemic comes when at the next shot, one of the referees annul a goal of Girona that would have given the rise again to first dividion. With this last decision of the referee, the crow went wild and from the stands was launched a water bottle that hit on of the assistants and the referee decided to suspent the match. Twenty minutes later and with a little public in the stands, the meeting was resumed only for fifty seconds that make imposible that the score move (even José Sánchez couldn't get on time to the field as he was in the press room).
The desesperation of the Girona players, the feeling of injustice and imptence at the end of the match was the only thing visible in the field, in fact, there have been some declarations and charges of premiuem payments for the Lugo players and also, charges of the purchase of the Betis game agiants Sporting de Gijón, the other polemic match of this last weekend of league. Some Girona players, after the match, have accused to Betis of "let win" by the Sporting de Gijón and in this context, Santi Vila (former mayor of Figueres) wrote in his Twitter account: "The fact that Betis let win by the Sporting de Gijón is more outrageous than the surprising motivation of the Lugo team agains the Girona".
And this is not all, with all this confrontations in Montivili, the audience jumped infuriated to the football field to rebuke players of Lugo, thta have to be escorted by the private security of the Girona club. Even that, they couldn't leave Girona stadium untill 22:30 because outside of the stadium the Girona fans awaited them.
But this is not the end of the "Girona dream", they will fight for the risse at firts division in the playoff step, where they will face against Zaragoza, Las Palmas and the Valladolid. So at the moment, the teams that will be for sure playting in firts divison next year will be Betis and Sporting, and we would see what happen between this four teams in te playoof step.
The model Ashley Graham just made history in the fashion world as the first top plus size appearing in the Sports Illustred magazine. She's 27 years old and her measures are far from the 90-60-90 stipulated by the fashion wordl. Although she has collaborated in different adverstiments of "plus size clothing", now she has appeared in this famous magazine wearing a black bikini and have the leading role in the last advertising campaign that claims the use of this garment by all women wathever their size is. This initiative has the intention of help to all women to feel attractive and safe with their bodies and also, with any type of swimsuit.
"It's necessary that all women with the same body as mine know thta their curves are beautiful"
-Ashley Graham-
With her work in this magazine and in others, Ashley is showing that something is changing in the fashion wordl. Another important brand, Calvin Klein, has just include in his CK Underwear another "plus size" model, Myla Dalbesio, with all the other models of the same campaing without doing any distintion or allusion to her size.
I think that the forefather of these new campaigns was France when they start to ban the fashion walks of extremely thin women and for avoid it, all the modle will have to present a medical certificate before being hired and a few weeks later. All the models under 18,5 of the Body Mass Index would not be allowed to file.
All this kind of mesures and the participation in important adverstimeng campaing of this "plus-size" models it's very importnat becuase the social impact that the fashion and the image of these models trasnmit it's very influencial overcoat for the teenagers. It's supposed that they represent the image of the beauty and if they are telling women thta a plus-size is 38 and up, they are causing body image issues, it's unrealistic expect that every women should be under the 38 size for feel beauty.
In the other hand we have another porblem with this matter that is: When a model is considerate a plus-size and when not? Where is the limit? In fact, not so long ago, plus size models were around size 44-46, but that number has recenlty shrunk to a 38-42 and as far I'm concerned, I believe that in the "real world" moste people would never think of a size 42 as a "plus-size". Anyway, of course, we continue to see fashion predominately on thin bodies because we're told that's what sells. But the fact is, it's just what we've been seeing for so long that we don't know what the alternative would look like. This could change, but the fashion industry would have to want it to. The more "plus-size" women we see, the more we're like "hey! she looks good!". If we saw more average-sized women in media, the more comfortable we would be with those images and the more we'd want to see ladies who look like that in movies, TV, and another fashion campaigns.
The
Blind Side is one of my favorites films. I had seen it thousands of times and I
think that I will never get tired of it. It's about one big black boy called
Michael Oher that have to live in friends’ houses or even, he have to sleep in
the street because he have a lot of family problems: he don't know nothing
about his father, his mother is a junkie and he was separated from his brothers
by the Social services when he was very young. He goes to the school but he gets
mark down and the teachers don’t want to help him because he never pay attention
in class and he can barely write. He doesn't have any friend except a little
and funny boy called Sean JR.
JR mother, Ane,
it's an interior designer with a strong character. One day, she see Michael
walking alone down the street, at night and shivering with cold then, she
decided to provide him a place to sleep at home. The next morning, Michael
leaves the house but Ane, invites him to stay longer.
Gradually, Michale
becomes a member of the family and later, they will end up adopting him.
Parallel to all of
this, Michale start to improve his marks and the school allow him to enter in
the football team. At first, this sport not convince him because he don't want
to hurt anyone, but later, he also improve because he considerate the team his
family and he wants to protect them (and he also has the help of all his family,
overcoat, of his new little brother) At the end, he's so good in this sport
that all the university teams wants to contracted him for the respective
university teams.
At least, a boy
who apparently, will not going to get anything in his life, ends in the
university and playing in a professional football team. The best of this film
is that it's based in a true story.
This term, Berta and I have done an oral
presentation about Tanzania. We choose this country because our parents have
been there and we have a lot of pictures in home and we think that it's a beautiful
country for all the landscapes, the Kilimanjaro (the highest mountain of all
Africa), the volcanos, the natural and wild reserves where you can find all kind
of animals,... This country it's also reach in culture: there are a lot of different
tribes with different costumes and religions.
Now the video of our presentation, hope you like it!
The Italian
neuroscientist Sergio Canavero is convinced that "In just two years,
will be possible the whole body transplantation, so patients
with quadriplegia, cancer or progressive muscular dystrophy may be able to
replace their ill bodies for another healthy.
The
idea sounds crazy and many of his friends think that it's impossible, but the Italian
says that the last obstacle, the connection between the spinal cord of the
donor with the spinal cord of the receiver, is already overtaken and it's
expected that in June, the doctor present a project for perform this kind of transplantations.
According with
Canavero, the operation is completely practicable with the medical advances that
exist, “it isn't necessary wait for discover something else” said. In fact, the
experiments for the whole body transplantation, started the last century: in
1945, there was attempt of transplanted the head of one dog to another (although
the animals could only survive between two and six days). Later, in the 70's, a
British scientific tried to do the same but this time with two monkeys: the
monkey could survive but it couldn't move because the scientific was not able
to connect the spinal cord.
Now,
according with the Italian doctor, this problem doesn’t exist, if an organ
reject another, this could be solved with drugs. In any case, could be a
rejection caused by a psychological reason (like in some face transplants) and
in this sense, Canavero explains that three months before the operation, the
patient must use a kind of virtual machine which will show like a picture of
the patient with the body that will have after the operation. In this way, the
patient wouldn't experience a psychological rejection.
Even so, the
process will be slowly: before the operation the patient will be into a coma
for a month for avoid movements and then, the patient must be subjected to
physical therapy to recovermotion. Further, the operation will last 36
hours and it will be needed between 100 and 150 professionals, and it's also possible
that before the transplantation, the patient have a change of humor and
character. For this last problem, Canavero proposed the cloning cells.
Candidates ready
for this kind of operations is not missing; the doctor says that he has received
a lot of requests although the success is not fullyinsured.
The project
financing, ten millions euros, it's also expected: a researcher of Turín have
publish a book about the head transplantation and the benefits of it will go to
the first intervention.
So the
only thing left to solve is where will be perform the first operation.
According to Canavero, "the country that makes the first whole body transplantation
will be like the first man to reach the moon, something that all countries
should aspire".
I think that this kind of
"experiments" should be done for prove if it can be done or not. I
don't know, maybe this operation it's possible and thanks to this doctor people
who have to spend his live in a wheelchair or people who have the days of live
count, can survived and have a better life although there is the problem of the
change of humor an character (even so the doctor Canavero says that could also
be solved). Anyway, if you are about to die and the doctors get to choose you
between die or live but with another character, what would you say? It's a
complicated topic.
I think that the main problem is ethical
or moral. If we started to do this kind of operations, we will be doing the
same as Dr.Frankenstein, nothing will be natural, I mean, you will born with
one body and you will die with the body of another person! Or what it's worse,
we could live forever. All seem to be a science fiction film...
