Lookin Back

Well, we have arrived at the end of the term and it is time to look back and see everything we have been through and the things we have learned. 

When you are learning a new language, it is important to see how you have improved, because it is something that you get better while the time. It is not an easy task but thanks the block we should have done during the course and also during the last year we can see easily how this improvement is. 

When I look back to the first post I wrote in my blog I see a big difference between them and the ones that I do now. Apart from a change in how they are I also see a change in the structure of the blog, I mean, in how I do now the post or the topics I chose to talk. As well I have noticed an improvement when I write, for example, now I found easier to write in English and I need use dictionaries less. 

So I think it is thanks to the practice that has helped me to improve my level of English. 

In our blog we have to do different activities, we have to summarize news, or do reviews from books or films and make your-says, it is express your opinion and talk about one topic you like and find interesting. My favorite activities are the reviews and the your-says. I like them because I can choose the topics I prefer and then say what I think about. I also like do reviews because I enjoy watch films and then talk about them and also say my opinion. 

Then I think these activities are the best to improve your level of English because you try to explain something with your own words and with your own point of view and I think this is a good way to get fluency. And at the same time give your opinion it’s important as a way to express what you think and a way to learn how express ideas and yourself better. 

At the other side, there is the news. It is the part I hate the most for two reasons: the first is I find very difficult to search for a new which interest me. The majority talk about the business world or something like that. The other reason is that I don’t like very much make summaries. But anyway read in English is also a good way to learn the language and to get new vocabulary. 

A part of doing our blog, during the course, we also have to do oral presentations in front of all the class about different topics. We organize for groups and we have to develop one topic. This forces us to investigate about something new, learn new words, improve our pronunciation and talk in front a group of people. 

Then there is the grammar book which we work during the course. It is to learn how the grammar works and how speak well, but I think that it goes no further. To learn to use well the grammar structures, you should practice talking and not doing exercises about fill the gaps.  

This year, at the end of the term, we have started a new “project” that it has never done. We are trying to collect money for Nepal and we have thought to do a charitable concert. All we participate in it doing different tasks and organizing it. I think it is a very good work to end the school year which everybody can enjoy it and, what is more, we are doing it for a good cause.

To finish I would like to wish a good summer for everyone and I hope to see you next year! Bye-bye Batxillerat, I’ll see you next course!

Global Change

I did the final oral presentation of the school curse with Andrea. We should decided one topic relared with global issues and we find interesting to talk about the Global Change.
Global Change is produced by human activity. It means that we are the responsables of the pollution and the damage of the Erth. It also means that we are who have to solve this problem and we should start now if we want to conserv our planet and all the species that live in it.

I hope you like it!

The end of the school year!

Well, this gonna be my last your-say of this term and how I said in another one before I would like to talk about my first year in Batxillerat and how I have finished it. 

The true is that this school year has passed very quickly to me! Now I remember the first week of class and it seems that it is so close. It doesn’t seem that have passed an entire course yet! And from here one I'll probably be studying for Selectivitat exams. 

But I don’t like to think in the future and what I would do next year. So I’m going to talk about this year and maybe next year I will write a post entitle “My years in school” or “My last years in Batxillerat”, how knows. 

I have said I don’t like very much to look to the future and count how days are for something, but I think that everybody start the school year counting how many days are left to summer. So this was my beginning in Batxillerat.

We started in September, the first day is very exciting because you meet again with all your friends and teachers, you discover who will be your tutor and what teachers will you have. Then come the rest of the course and when you have to work.

Now, when I have the experience of the first year, I can answer all the questions I had at first about how really is and if the “change” from ESO was so hard how was say. And I also can recognize that all that they warned us in last year was true. 

I think that Batxilletrat is completely different from ESO courses. But I think I have done it fairly good. Now you should work harder and be more organized with the time you have and how you spend it. 

It is not necessary to know what do you want to study in the end or if you don’t want to go to university. For example, I don’t know what I will be studying but when I decide I want to do it. So because that you should do your best. 

All that we do in this two years is a “preparation” for another exam at the end of the next course. And the marks you get now will be very important in your future. All it can be a bad system of education or you can considered it good, in any case, now, you must go through it. 

The truth is that I have not thought much about next year (I have said I didn’t like) but I think that it will be shorter and probably faster, but similar to this. It's said that second it is usually better, I hope so because this has been very good and I have spent really good time. Because although Batxillerat can be a hard year and sometimes difficult to pass, I also think that in Batxillerat there are the best years of the high school.

Twin things

Since always I have had a twin sister who is very similar to me (how is logical) although in the last years maybe we are more different that when we were little. Even so, there ate a lot of people, overcoat when they first meet us, that easily confuse us. 

Over the years, I have noticed that there are some “questions” or “myth” around twin brothers that everybody ask when meet some pair of twins. 

The most common is not a question, it is a test to prove that we are true twins. It consist in say: “oh, can you get together to see you?” and then they concluded that we really are twins. There are some variants of this practice. Sometimes, taking advantage of we are already close, people start playing to “find the differences”. I think this is quite absurd because we end up saying how they can difference each one, so the game doesn’t work well. 

Then there is another variant of the play, and I think this is which I hate most. I call it “who is who”. People want to prove they really know our difference and they want to practice their ability to distinguish us. So they turned occur and make my sister and I move and change our position to try to hit who is who. 

One of the more frequent strategies that people follow to differentiate us is trying to establish relations between what we wear. For example they say: ah ok, who wear red t-shirt is Andrea and who have these rings is Berta”. And then when they want to call one of us they start to for our rings or to remember hoe wear what color. For example, in my football team our teammates or the public to guess who we are in the field have to look at football boots, but still failing.  In my opinion, this isn’t a good method because it only can works for one day if we change our clothes. 

I have adopted the habit that when I listen to the name of “Andrea” I turn as if they call me. And I have to say that the majority of times they are calling me. 

When we have already passed the first part of differentiation, start the habitual questions about myth and theories. One of the most popular is: “And when your sister cries you cry, too?” Absolutely no. Like when one of us gets hurt, the other one doesn’t notice anything. 

There is another one that it is also very typical and there are different theories for the answer. They ask us who were the first to born (me) and the rule says that who born first is the little one. I don’t know the real answer to this question, but I used it to resolve conflicts with the argument of the older. 

And finally there is a last question with which we have to answer always: “Is it cool to have a twin sister?” I don’t know, I always have had one. And then everybody wants to have a brother like him. 

The true is that a pair of twins is a little strange and I don’t blame people for their curiosity. Have a twin sister is like have another sister, but this is your age, wear the same cloth of you, it’s your course and shares your birthday day. 

La Pell Freda

The last book I have time to read was “La Pell Freda” write by Albert Sanchez Piñol. 

Lately, I don’t have much time to spend in things like read. I hope this summer I could have a little more. 

                       

Anyway, La Pell Freda is a book I read as a part of the lecture club from my school. (I think I have talk about it before). Of the book we have read this year La Pell Freda is what I liked most. I think this is because this is not “youth literature” and it is more complete. The true is this book is one of my most enjoyable of all I have read out of school. 

The main character of the novel is from Ireland, he is an orphan and he fight for the independence of his country. While he was still lower he had the lucky to meet a “teacher” who teaches him a lot of things for the life. 

When Ireland became independent there was a civil war and everybody who had fought for the same cause then became enemies. The protagonist decides to go away and he accepts a job in a remote island in the Pacific as an official atmospheric. He has to replace the last official but when they arrived at the island he meets in the lighthouse with someone who seems a little insane and out of place. Anyway, the protagonist settles down in the house of the official atmospheric. 

But the first day in the island he discovers he is not alone. There are a kind of monsters that came from the sea who want to eat him. After trying to survive for some days, he notices that the only way to continue alive is sheltered in the lighthouse. Then is when he meets with Battí Caffo who doesn’t want to share the lighthouse. Finally, he manages to convince Battís Caffo. 

Since this point of the book, the tow partners of the island must coexist with each other and fight against the monster every night. They both are tow persons with very different characters, ways to think and have very different reason to be in the island. But they both also only have the same goal: to survive. 

There are a lot of different themes that the novel talks about in the novel. The coexistence, the empathy, the fight of power and the fight for your lands, the equality… and more. 

I also really like La Pell Freda because of how is the novel write. How the author describes the places, the monsters or the thinking’s or character from the tow characters. There are a lot of sentences and paragraphs that I read twice because I like. 

So I recommend this book and although you don’t like the kind of themes that there are at the background of the novel you can enjoy only the story because it keeps you in tension all the time and the monster will make “suffer” you and may get a little scared. 

Blak Mirror: White Christmas

Black Mirror is a British series created by Charlie Brooker that talk and show how the world Could be with all our "fantastic" technology. Black Mirror shows a black society Where Have improved the technology without any moral or ethical wall and people Have Become Slaves of Their Own "progress".

I read from the author of the series That the title comes from what you find in every wall, every desk and in the palm of every hand: the black and cold screen of a TV, smartphone or monitor.

Black Mirror is a whole of different episodes without any relation Between them, I mean; you can watch without Have Seen number three number two or one. They are only related with the topic and the structure but are completely independent With different characters and stories.

I really love this series and I think it is fantastic! I started watching it last year to episodes Because We saw in class. The series is only in Inglés so you can see the Original version, but Also you can find it with subtitles. There are two seasons With three episodes each one. Everybody is impatient waiting for the third season of the series, but we Could see one special chapter for Christmas and, like all the other chapters, it was great. Now I would like to talk about this last one: White Christmas.

I think it is the longest one and it Could Be Considered like a film Because It Seems really one. In there we can find famous actors like Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall Who are the two main characters. The chapter is divided into three stories, but each one is Very Important to Understand the main one, Although They are not linked.

All starts one Christmas day Where Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall Should spend it in a small house in the middle of the nothing can go anywhere without Because of the extreme wind and snowfalls. It is supposed That They are in the hunt since four years ago. Jon Hamm tries to start a Conversation with Rafe who does not like to talk much and Explain His past life. Jon Hamm tries to Talk with him and I starts to Explain to him how His old job was and what I Makes.

Then the different stories start to alternate and each one is a clue to what is happening and Understand Where They whos are.

The technology is to criticize in the fact of "blocking" people in real life in the same way you can do in the social networkers. In this view of the future, people If They Could block people get angry With them or if They only do not want to see them or listen to them.

At the same time, people have a graft in brain and They are reliable to take out Their mind from Their head and use it like "slaves" at Their service stored in a little machine called "cookie".

Then anyone can take your mind and explore your regards, Thinks stealing all your secrets or privacy, freedom and intimacy.

In White Christmas, there are some topics That Were Already dealt in other chapters before, like privacy or the fact you can take out your mind. But it introduce new ways to use the technology.

All is fiction but at the same time everybody knows It could be very true and it is the more frightening thing, I think. All the technology there is in Black Mirror is nowadays in reach and the view of a society, like is shown in Black Mirror, is not as far as We Could think.

Black Mirror has a very critic view of new technology and the society That is building around them. Every chapter is full of contrast and keeps you thoughtful for some days.

I recommend it a lot, although  you do not want to see the critical side, ever chapter is intense and full of intrigue and Things That will leave you stunned.

Research Project (TdR)

More or less nine months later we will have to hand over our research project. This is a project that is made in Catalonia by batxillerat students. We have to hand over it in the middle of the next course so for this reason we start it this year while we are still doing first of batxillerat. This project is important to us because the mark will average with batxillerat and university entrance exam marks. 

We started the most difficult task in march when we had to choose our project theme. It’s very important choose one that you really like and with you could make a good work, too. First they give us some suggestions and if we don’t like any of them we can try to propose our own theme. Personally I think it is better to try to find your own theme because that means that it really interests you. 

I have said that it is the most difficult task because at first I didn’t know what can I do and I didn’t know what subject would choose. At the prime moment, I thought to do something related to biology but all that interested me weren’t possible because of the material or because of the complexity. I can say that until the last moment I didn’t have a project, yet. In the end appears to me one theme that it really enthusiasm me. 

When everybody have their theme we are allocated one teacher who will supervise us our work and who will help us.  And then we are ready to star our project. 

Well, this is how it works but I would like to explain what my project is about and what I’m going to do. 

I have said that at first I didn’t know what to do but I end up with a very interesting theme. My first project was about the improvement of the human, but then we find something more amazing: the neuroethics and more accurate the “neuroenhancement”. We know about a European project called Nerri (Neuro-Enhancement: Responsible Research and Innovation) where the Pompeu Fabra University is involved, too. And, what is more, there are two companies in Barcelona which works in the production and development of new products and services related with neuroenhancement. (This is one of the companies).

Nodaway, thanks to the refinement and improvement of new technologies, we are doing great discoveries in the way that our brains work. The brain is the main controller of our body, instincts and feelings. And thank our brains the human race have a conscience. It has allowed us to create communities, cultures and be the dominant species on the planet. But at the same time the brain is the biggest mystery from our body.

In the brain, we have all kind of mental processing and understand them could be essential to see why we are what we are, why we do something or why we act in one way. And in the last years we have discovered amazing things. 

But this isn’t all for what new technologists can use in this field. The knowing of some of the essential functioning of the brain and the knowing of where are some specializations are located give us the opportunity to change them and modify what we consider as an inconvenient. Let’s take an example related with the memory: there is a pill that doesn’t let brain save traumatic memories. It has been used in the USA army for the military in some wars where they had to kill people. When you take this pill you are not as conscience as you could be and your “mechanism” to detect when kill somebody are affected, too. So you can kill somebody who is innocent. 

There thousands of psychoactive which works in different ways. I can say it’s a multidisciplinary field because it not only affects the world of science or philosophy. In it there are involved all kind of aspects related with the future of our society and the humanity. Neuroenhancement are not only involved in “scientific” themes, they also affect all of us because they can change our sight of what is the man, where are they limits if there is any, or if not more, they will be very present in our next future. 

I have already started my project but I really like it and I‘m finding it very interesting. 

Z Generation

Not long ago I read in the newspaper about “Z generation”. This is the name got to the generation who has born between 1994 and 2010 by the experts in marketing and sociologist. So it means that I am a member of Z generation and because that I would like to comment how they say that we are. 

The principal cause to do this study about my generation it quite easy: we are the coming potential consumers (it’s says that in 2025 we are going to represent the 75% of the workforce in the world) and it is important to the marketing companies to know what we like, what we want and how we want it.

Without taking this into account, the experts trace how is supposed we are, what we want and how we see the global future. 

The principal difference between Z generation and our predecessors (the millennials) is the indifference created by the selfishness, narcissism and the obsession for the consumption in the last generation. The experts say we are a generation who want save the world. 

We are a generation who has been educated between crisis and unemployment and with the threat of terrorism. We grow up watching how our predecessors have wasted their time, accumulating degrees and masters to disdain job interviews because of their over qualification.  

Now, we want to change this. Some investigators compare us with Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games who reveals against the power. We have been molding by the technologist but more by the recession and austerity politics. We say no to the traditional policy and the study show how only a 10% trust in her government. A part of our learning is made out of the classes (in part thanks to new technologist) and it creates a personalization education, and our free time is invested in professional vocations (like photography, blogs…).

This new generation has a more social conscience and a critical spirit has grown in it. We are more altruists and consents about global issues like inequality or global warming. We try to find jobs with sense that could help us to change the world and our new idols are symbols of transparency and justice (like Edward Snowden). 

 All this characteristics about this new generation that is growing now are encouraging and they allow us to considered a big improvement in the future. Maybe what I like more is that I am a member of Z generation and all this things include me. Experts see us as a new force to change the world, a force more independent, conscience about global issues and with intention to improve it and out of what is considered the individualism and the necessity of consumption. They see in us a generation that doesn’t consider a good place the world that has been left us to live.  

All this is good and truly is a very big change of mentality, but I don’t watch it as real as it is shows. I think that in every generation there is a change in the view of how they see the world and it is linked with the time they have been educated and the principles that there was. But I think these last generations are the opposite of what the experts say. We are not more consents about the others, the opposite, we are more individualists and selfish and precisely what we need is more “collective consciousness”. New technologists, for example, have enlarged inequality and social problems, and the only thing that has changed is that now we know more about these real problems, but they continued increasing. 

Another thing I don’t agree with is that we have created a new critical spirit or we fight for the privacy. I think we don’t promote it. We adapt to what they say without question why we do the things, and this is the major problem: the carelessness and the lack of subjectivity. And in the other side, with the social networks we are fighting against our privacy and not for her. 

After all, I don’t want to sound pessimist about the future. I think it is impossible that everybody in a generation could think alike and could have a mentality to change the world, but I know, and it is proven by history, that we only need a minority to change things. Because are the minorities who change the world and not the “new generations”.

News

'3D Cryosat' tracks Arctic winter sea ice

Europe's Cryosat spacecraft monitors the thickness of the ice in the far north of the Earth. In 2013 we saw the thinnes winter ice ever. This year, in February, we could see an ice layer 25cm thiker. But anyway the trend is go down. 

One researcher from the UK's Nerc Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling says we have seen high levels of Arctic sea ice and thickness volume in the last years. But it isn't a good reference. What people should watch is the sea ice volume because it proof how much ice is left. What we need to understand is the process that have caused the change of the climate in the Artic and it also can help us to know more accurate what may happen in the future.

This year the maximun extent of sea ice was on 25th February and it was the smallest winter maximum in the satellite record. But satellite Cryosat measuring another aspect: the height of the ice near the ocean water. Then experts combining the thinkness and the extent they can calculate the changes in the sea-ice. 

This February Cryosat saw a volume across the Artic of nearly 24.000 km3. In 2013 it was about 21.000 km3. 

Nowaday, Cryosat team is able to turn out the information much faster that five years ago when the project started. And as well as this is the fith anniversary of the satellite, the team is developing a new sistem that works near real-time to improve the work of science and maritime activities.

For example: to move inside the thik sea-ice we need icebreaker ships with strengthened. With Cryosat, now we are able to provide users of the Artic with information of the ice to move quikly and avoid accidents. 

Whereas before Cryosat was only a scientific tool to study the changing environment of the Artic, now it is acting more like satellites tha Europe is providing day to day operational data. 

The European Space Agency's mission manager on Cryosat consideres that this kind of knowledges are becoming a priority for a number of operational and services. For example shipping compaines ask for especific information to operate and sail safely. In this way, a mission like Cryosat has all the characteristics to answer this requirements.

This is a web portal where any user can get information two days after Cryosat had made the observations. It is a series of samplings across the region that can give a clearer idea of the conditions you can find in any part of the Artic. 

Once more we see how science can help any difficulty we have and also helps us to improve all what we do. This time we profit a satellite that scientifics had to study the enviromental changes in Artic to improve the sailing and make it more safe. Obviously all this technologies have a lot of uses and they can help us to make what we do. But certainly we are using a technologie that was create to try to slow the melting as a tool to increase this melting. All the traffic by ship in the Artic cause melting and pollute the Earth, so we are moving to solve the first objective. 

Anyway, this is what science have, evry new discovery or invention have a huge of different uses. Some will be good and others will be bad buet one time that they are think it's impossible to spot any af them. 

Tragedy in Barcelona

Soon This Morning, in the high school in Barcelona, you have an unbelievable success taken place Where one student has Entered In His class and attacks His classmates and one teacher have been killed. This boy is only 13 years old and Because of That I can not be punish by the law and his parents will be Who Will Have to Take Responsibility for his.

Obviously this is a strange case That We had never seen before in our country. Maybe We had listened acerca Similar cases in USA, for example, Where Have arms and everybody can It could be "more predictable". But we never thought That Could have something like Could take place near us. And Now, When we see the Things That Can Happen and Affect us is When We start to think where can be the mistake or what can we do to Improve the situation and avoid future cases like you.

This case, like all extreme cases, show possible legal holes in our society and make us to think over problems or social acerca think if our public centers are safe enough for our children. For example, one boy Who has killed His teacher and Who has Attacked His classmates in high school With Different His arms can not be punishing Because I is only 13 years old. This May be a legal problem, but Also we can see social problems if we think That the cause of the crime is the ambient social Where I lived. If we think about the fact That the boy Entered in the high school with arms That thing we can all is a security problem.

In My Opinion That Say That I think the problem is in the security or in the law is a mistake. We can not install metal detectors in the entries of the schools or force student to wear bulletproof vests. Also We Can not Say That The Problem Is That this boy can not go to prison. I think all those are side problems and the real one is: that's What Makes a child of 13 years old have the thought of killing innocent people and, what is more, I do it? Because the future if society starts thinking esta That kind of thing in age, what would be the next? Where will we living in a future?

So we shouldn't try to change our legislation or our security in schools, we should try to change the new mentality With the new generations are growing up With. A mentality based in any moral value beyond the equipment benefit and the personal benefits. One of the things I think We have lost and for the humanity has Fought During last centuries is the "Collective Consciousness". Now our new society is ruling by try To obtain the maximum benefit materials without conscience acerca take who we get it. And this is damaging our society and our community dividing it more and more problems Instead Causing solutions.

(I let you the new aboutthe cas

e here).

News

How sitting down all day is literally killing you

Around 12,000 years ago our ancestors decided to abandon their nomadic ways and settle down in communities, They satrt to domesticate animals and grow crops, and they noticed it was much bettrer than spend all day searching for food.  Because imagine spending 12 hours a day looking for food while any predator can attack you.

So when our ancestors began to establish  sedentary communities, they found aour civilization. Over time humns became better in their new way of life and thakns that we could develop cience, art, literature and cultural characteristics. We also started to have hobbies. 

One thing that we all have adopted is a love to sit all day. Indeed we spend half of our lives sitting. We sit in our work, in our car o public transport, when we come home we eat and watch our TV programes sitting. Then we go to sleep and get up inthe morning repeating the same cycle. 

But it is that stay sitting is also a way of relax and if it makes you happy, do it. But there are tow problems: number one, sitting all day goes against human biology ans evolution; and number tow, sitting all day is killing you. 

Humans are the only spece in the planet that could devolp to the capacity to walk on two legs. It also allow us used our hands using toold and it has speed up our evolution. No other animal have the same capacity and we have e better quality of life. But we have regressed in how much time we spend sitting down that it make us have less health.

Researchers has shown that even if you exercise, sitting dow all day can increase your risk of dying from diseases or helth conditions. 

One study, wich monitored 92.000 women during 12 years, showed they had 12% increase of dying from any health condition, 27% from a heart diseases and 21% from cancer if they sat for 11 hours or more a day. 

All this has an impact in our metabolism which remains static and it has all kind of negative concequences on the body. 

Well, there is a simple solution to this: standing. 

Standing up helps you live longer and healthier. Stand up at work, or stand up often as posible during the day and stretch out, go on walks or give up your seat on the bus to someone who really needs it. it could save your life.

We have two legs for a reason and we should use them for what they serve.

This is just and advice to improve our lifes and to realize the kind of life we have and to think if it is the best and the the healthiest. It is true that we speend a lot of houers sitting but I think that they are necessary. We can't speend standing the whole day but sure we can make improvements and go for a walk instead to stay home watchin TV. Or if we have free time we can spend it doing some exercice or meeting by friend outsite instead to stay home doing nothing. Sometimes little changes can improve our life a lot and can make feel us much better, less stressed and stay healthier.