MY ENGLISH COMPETENCE IN 2015

If I had to choose any post to show my level of english I would choose a writting about living without mobile phones. 

Although it's not a long composition, the structure is very clear and there are lots of connectors and interesting ideas (in my point of view). It's also a common topic to talk about nowadays, so it shouldn't be boring to read! 

Choosing an oral evidence is even more difficult. I choose the presentation of my TDR. I had been working on that project for so long that I think it's the best presentation that I have done, Seeing it again I can see how I wasn't that nervous. I was more secure and the presentation has a good structure and a lot of information. 

All the posts helped me to improve my english, I think that the ones that I choose are a good example of my level. Nevertheless, I always see somethings that I could have done better!

MY ENGLISH PROGRESS from 2013-2015

While reading my first post of Batxillerat (Mail to the teacher), I don't have the feeling that I'd written that two years ago.

I don't know if now I would do a better informal letter to a teacher. The text itself has to be informal, so I don't think that back then I put a lot of effort on writing it. Perhaps the most diferent thing I see when I compare it with the newer ones is the fact that the sentences are very simple, with not too many connectors.  I don't tend to do a lot of mistakes, not even two years ago but I can detect some of them that now I wouldn't do. An example would be "I sleep less than I should sleep" there's no need of writing sleep twice. 

I remember that it was hard to me to adapt my way of writting to english. The usual style I use to do essays in catalan or spanish is with long sentences it's trickier to make rich but short sentences! That's another aspect that has changed during the years. In my last post I can see more complex connectors and eve the structure of the sentence is different.

I can't tell precisely if I have improved a lot in the writing part. However, I don't need to watch my presetations to know I did an enormous change. Having re-watched my old presentation about when I was a child I can see that now my english is more fluid than before, and I was even more shy. I have improved in my posture and my way of explaining, although in the most recent presentation (about the TDR) I'm nervous as well. 

NEWS: DID YOU KNOW THAT KINDER EGGS ARE ILLEGAL IN THE USA?

I remember that when I was a child I loved to recieve Kinder eggs. In fact even now I would enjoy eating one (although now it would be more for the chocolate than for the toy). If I have to describe my childhood in ten words one of them would be Kinder. So, can you imagine a life without Kinder?

Sure you do if you come from America! According to the article that I read, Kinder eggs are banned in the USA. There's an especific law which says that doesn't allow to put something that isn't food inside food, it could only be possible if the not-food product is visible from the outside.

The law was created due to the fact that, fourty years ago, there was an incident caused by the swallowing of a little piece from the toy.

In my opinion, there's no need of such a drastic action. There's a warning in Kinders that says to be better opened with adults. Also the capsule which contains the toy is too big to be swallowed! I find the law a little nonsense. Food is not transparent, how do you expect that the object could be visible from the exterior if is covered by food?

It's a big shame that American kids can not be able to enjoy Kinder eggs, however, I'm sure that they have a lot of snacks better than Kinder to enjoy!

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News source: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/why-are-kinder-surprise-eggs-illegal-in-the-usa-10055273.html

NEWS: NEPAL QUAKE: MORE THAN 1000PEOPLE DEAD AFTER TREMOR NEAD KATHMANDU

At the end of April, a natural disaster ocurred in Nepal. An earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale) killed more than a thousand people as a result of the avalanches in the Himalayas and of all the demolished buildings. Most of the survivers spent the days at local nursery plants. Two ancient temples with a lot of significance  were also completely destroyed.

Last week the policemen confirmed the death of a catalan woman who was hiking the Himalaya. Nevertheless, there's a large number of people missing that might not be found.

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The destroyed temples

I find terrifying how nature can cause this amount of damage in matter of seconds. It must be devastating to lose someone in this kind of accidents, even more if you don't really know if the person is just missing or if it's already dead. Although it's nobody's fault, it's amazing the amount of support that the city recieved and in consequence a lot of lives were saved. 

In my opinion, natural diasters like that one  are the worst, not just for the number of deaths, but also for the city itself. It erases the history that the city had. What would Catalonia be without La Sagrada Familia and the other beautiful churches spreaded across the country, without the famous ruins and such? Nothing. We would loose our essence, our nacionality. Without the patrimony, a city is just an industrial zone. Catalonia wouldn't exist without the tourism that comes each year. So, why aren't we trying to prevent natural disasters? We are contaminating the Earth, and although we can't stop the movement of the tectonic plates, we could reduce the pollution, we could decrease the deglaciation of the poles, we could prevent the extension of the hollow ozone. But we are doing nothing.

What kind of planet will our descendants will live in?

News source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/25/nepal-hit-by-strong-earthquake

NEWS: ARE EMOJI KILLING OFF THE ALPHABET?

Did you know that there are more than 800 emojis? According to an article, emojis are replacing internet slang completely now that the little images are creating a global recognised language.

Some internet slang like "Oh my god" (OMG) has been replaced with the emoji that has a fear expression, "Laugh out loud" (LOL) has been replaced with the emoji that is crying of happiness.

OMG!!!

LOL

However, it doesn't stops here. Nowadays emojis are also used combined to  create sentences. According to a study, Finland is the city where most of the network users use emojis in a daily basis. 

The most used emojis are the one used to express LOL, followed by the emoji that has hearts as eyes and then the one that blows a kiss.

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As a user of some networks such as Instagram and, of course, Whatsapp, I must say that I really enjoy using emojis. I think that complements very well a message. Although I have never used it in sentences because I find that is faster writing the word than searching for the right emoji, I wouldn't find it strange if someone replyed to me that way.

I can't tell if it's a bad thing or not. I don't see why internet slang should be better than emojis! Looking trough my phone, the emojis I use the most are the typical heart, the girl who's killing it, and also the dead face (mostly used to express how I feel about the final exams and la selectivitat).

The girl on fire

The dead emoji

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3070135/Are-emoji-killing-alphabet-Instagram-maps-use-icons-replacing-internet-slang-words.html

NEWS: HOGWARTS IS HERE! RESEARCHERS REVEAL REAL-LIFE INVISIBILITY CLOAK

According to an article of the Daily Mail, researchers from arround the world are trying to create an invisibility cloak inspired by the invisible cloak from Harry Potter.

Some inventors from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have already invented a cloak able to cover small objects. How it works? They have created a material wich is able to alter the cycle and speed of light so when the waves of light touches it, they get reflected instead of the object.

Here's an image of the Invisible Cloak. You hide an object inside the tube, and it dissapears due to the distortioned waves.

Even after reading this article I found it impossible to believe and to understand, but it seems that the inventors are going to the schools of their country to show how it works because it's physics. I haven't quite understand how the waves can make something dissapear!  But as seen in the other article that I post about the new machine able to mantain an organ alive, I don't see the utility to an invisible cloak. I'm not saying that everyone should be trying to find the method of saving the world, however that Institute is not the only one trying to design an invisible cloak, so why invert a significant amount of money, sources and time to something that it's not as demanded as the organ machine? And even though this project turns out well and in the future we will be able to be invisible, I'm sure that it's going to be used as a weapon rather than a common good. 

Harry Potter's invisible cloak

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3063185/Hogwarts-Researchers-reveal-real-life-invisibility-cloak-used-classrooms-teach-physics.html

NEWS: THE BREATHING LUNG TRANSPLANT

In a british hospital, it's a common thing to use a machine able to keep organs working outside the body during 24 hours. Using the machine instead of the traditional method of putting the organ into a cool box (where the organ only lives for six hours) doubles the number of lung transplants.

The machine, called Organ Care System, is able to keep the lungs in the same condition as the body, so the lungs keep working because blood is still circulating. The importance of that is because using that machines lungs can be transported, although just the 20% of them are going to be usefull due to the difficult compatibility of the doner and the person who's reciving it. As a doctor says, "organs weren't meant to be frozen on ice" so this machine basically solves the problem.

Organ Care System

Years ago, in La Marató of TV3, a program which each year is dedicated to a disease, they discussed the fact that there are a lot of people waiting for an organ transplant. This machine is giving the oportunity of saving a lot of lifes. I'm sure that doctors would find a way to built a machine like this for each organ. This kind of articles show us how quickly is the tecnology evolving!

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3075219/The-breathing-lung-transplant-New-machine-keeps-organ-working-outside-body-24-hours-double-number-successful-operations.html

CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT MOBILE PHONES?

Mobile phones have turned to be an essential tool on our daily basis. They have become so powerful due to their capaity, everything is linked to them and once you enter the vicious circle of being updated each second of the day you'll find it more difficult to disconnect from it.

In my opinion, there are two types of person for this issue: the ones who couldn't live without their phones and the ones who don't need a phone for anythig. There's no in between. I have seen people who were against using phones as computers. However, because of their jobs now are completely dependent. I can understand that kind of depency, but nowadays more and more people (mostly teenagers) feel the need to see what's more people (mostly teenagers) feel the need to see what's on their phone, although they might not have recieved any notification.

 We should use our mobile phones in our free time instead of not making the most of it when we're working, for example. Being the second type of person is more difficult, not to use the phone at all you must be a very organised person.

That being said, I think that I couldn't live without my phone, wich is frightening. We should enjoy doing things without using our phones, we need to find a balance.

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NEWS: ORGAN TRANSPLANT CHILD BARRED FROM RAYANAIR FLIGHT FOR ARRIVING LATE

An Airline Company called Rayanair didn't attend a family who needed to catch a flight immediately for health reasons. A ten years old boy who lives in the Canary Islands was on the list for getting a liver and kidney implants. When the hospital of Madrid called the family to say that the organs were available and that the surgery should take place as quick as possible, they rushed to the airport. Once they were there, the family tried to book a place for the child but, as the agents of Rayanair said, they were too close of the departure time and there's a rule of not to let anyone catch the plane if it's that close to the time. The family had to wait more than an hour to be able to take another plane (no from Rayanair's Compay).  Although the boy's situation is unknown, some people speculate that perhaps he was not able to have the implant on time.

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In my opinion, not allowing someone to take a plane which could save his/her life it's a clear violation of the Human Rights. To deny someone this help just because it's not in the rules, when it's a matter of living or not living, it's a crime. By doing that you don't respect the human right of Social Security (#22) because each Nation, and even in an International level, we should have to take an effort to protect lives, and the right of Responsability (#29).

News source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/organ-transplant-child-barred-from-ryanair-flight-for-arriving-late-10114656.html

HUMAN RIGHTS

Human rights are fundamental rights that everyone has just by the fact of being human. Their function is to protect and help us. They were created in 1948 by Eleanor Roosevelt and the Comission of the United Nations at the end of the World War II due to the fact that millions of lifes were taken in wars or slavery. 

There are 30 human rights. Some of them are well known, like the right of equality (#1: We Are All Born Free And Equal) or the right for no torture (#5: No Torture). 

However, there're some which I didn't knew and that I think that are a little bit unnoticed by our society. 

I didn't know that we has the Right to Play (#24). This right defends that everyone must have spare time during work and also everyone should have a reasonable limitation of working hours and period vacation with payment included.

I don't think that this right it's acomplished everywhere. Even in Spain there are some cases of people who work an exageration of hours for a awful income. Or people who doesn't have hollidays. I guess that not having a holliday is not as grave as not having the right to equality but in my opinion if it's a right we should respect it as much as any other.

Source: http://www.youthforhumanrights.org/what-are-human-rights/videos/right-to-play.html

SKYPING WITH NOA

In this semester at school we had the chance to talk (trough Skype) with Noa, a girl who finished highscool a year ago and who has made a complete change in her life. 

As she explained to us, she knew two things for sure: 1: she did want to go to University and the second one: at that moment it wasn't the right time. As she explained, it was the moment to travel, to live in a different way, to be independent and to live an unforgettable experience. So, what did she do? Noa took a gap year to Australia, to Sydney to work as an au pair. 

Her job was easy: she had to take care of two young siblings and pick them up at school. She had a lot of free time and she made a lot of friends. Now she has a very good level of english and she is very happy with her decision. She said that she was homesick, however she had a great time in Autralia and before going home, she wants to go by it's own to Uluru with a group of excursionists, and although Noa is a very extrovert girl, she really likes to have a time with herself and the thing she loves the most is having adventures!

NEWS: MAN DIED FROM HEART ATTACK CAUSED BY BITTING HIS NAILS

We all know that bitting your nails is unhealthy and dangerous. Nevertheless, we're not concious about how much can this simple action afect us. 

I've found an article, which is about a man called John Gardener (40) who just died in consequence of bitting his nails. His wife explains that he bite his nails as a habit but lately it had become an adiction. Doctors believe that he didn't noticed the pain (of biting the skin) so that's why he continued bitting them. Although the poor man fought hard to stop his bad habbit, he couldn't, and his nails were in poor condition and often bleeding. Due to those facts, he died because of the lack of blood and of an infection, his heart stopped.

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All bad habits are bad for a reason. Although this story seems unrealistic, it's an example of what can cause to you have a bad addiction. I know it's not the same, but if for example you really love a book, you have that feeling that you have to finish it now: but time is running anyway, the world doesn't stop because you haven't finished the book. I gues that this is how being adicted to something is. You're not concious about the other things (most of the time those things are the rellevant ones) and that's why it's so dangerous. How can bitting your nails be that dangerous? How can watch a whole season on the internet be dangerous? You lose time, and time is gold.

News source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-gardener-inquest-man-died-3230045

NEWS: MYSTERY OF OUR 145 "ALIEN" GENES

A recent study at the University of Cambridge states that some of our DNA is not from our ancestors. It is believed that those genes are foreign, and by that they mean that we acquired the foreign genes from some microorganisms who lived with the human race millions of years ago. Another thing that they state is that it might be in consequence of them that the species can evolve. The scientists who discovered that are aiming to chance the point of view of the evolution. They found the same mocroorganism in another species 

It fascinates me how everyday people are trying to understand the way how everything works. Although the experiments are not useful to find an answer, they open another ways of exploring our world and ourselves so someday, we will know something sure.

The article surprised me because in theory, we already know our structure and all of our genes. We have the genoma code, which is a very, very, very long of each gen that everyone has. What I'm trying to say is that we'll never be 100% sure about how we got to live and that discoverys like those makes you questionate if all the concepts, ideas that we take for granted are really true.

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2994187/Mystery-alien-genes-Scientists-discover-DNA-NOT-ancestors-say-change-think-evolution.html

NEWS: WELCOME TO THE MOLE HOUSE, AN ECOFRIENDLY HOME

They're not usual, but Eco-friendly houses are, nowadays, a trend and the Clinton Home (Michigan) is no exeption.

The ecofriendly house  is budied under 25 feet of soil, so the house doesn't need a heating system because it provides a natural insolation. The home itself mesures 3.300 square feet and it has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage and a lot more. It's currently being sold for 425.000 pounds.

As you can see in the photo, the house is almost buried exept the façade and the garage.

The façade

Find the house!
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A large room of the house

I think that Eco-friendly houses are a good solution to pollute less, and to make the most of the natural sources. I think that making such an investment it's worth it if, after all, you're going to pay less. I would like to live in a Eco-friendly house, except that I don't really like the Clinton Home. I wouldn't like the idea of being buried!

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2994247/Live-like-mole-Eco-friendly-Michigan-home-built-UNDERGROUND-help-save-money-utilities.html

NEWS: ARE HIPSTER BEARDS UNHYGIENIC?

Nowadays, having quite a long beard it's trendy between boys. 

Recent studies have found that having facial hair might cause infections due to the fact that beards contain thousands of germs, even after washing it. The explanation that some scientists have is that the facial hair is more thick and it's usually tangled so it's easier for the dirt to get trapped. They noticed that most of the prople who had face infections was because of the facial hair. They even have classified beards as "bacterial sponges". 

Despite all of that, there are some experts who have a different opinion: beards aren't less hygienic than a shaven face, because the bacteria is on the skin. 

A hipster beard
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In my opinion, I don't think that having a beard can be dangerous. We can get infections for a lot of causes, having a beard might increase the probabilities of having one, as well as the trend teenagers who smoke it will increase the probability of having cancer or the trend of being thin increases the probability of having anorexia. What is concerning me the most is that we (teenagers) tend to follow trends without asking ourselves if this is really what we're into. We should have to create our personality inspired by the trends, but not being obsessed with them. If someone's comfortable having a beard as long as he takes care of him, I don't see where's the problem!

News source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2991865/Are-beards-unhygienic-Facial-hair-riddled-bacteria-spread-germs-trigger-infections-experts-claim.html  

NEWS: AMERICAN AND BRITISH AID WORKERS INFECTED WITH EBOLA

Do you remember a couple of months ago about the most dramatic problem that the whole world had? The Ebola was spreading quickly, and to everywhere. Even in here, in Spain we had some cases of infection. Although we haven't heard anything about it since then , the drama is not over.

According to this article, two militars (from Britain and America) who had been helping people in Sierra Leone are infected by ebola. Those soldiers were trying to combat against ebola by trying to control the virus. Both of them were members of an assotiation called Partners In Health, and their aim is to help impoverish countries.

We completely forgot about Ebola since we are not in danger to get infected. I'm sure that this happens also in another counties who had suffered it but if the problem is not over, we should help. I feel helpless because we, as citizens can't do anything. There are a lot of diseases that need to be cured. We have the proof that Ebola can spread easily. Are we waiting for a second round? This might sound very cynical, but we are not helping, the majority of the world is not trying to irradicate the virus. Two months ago all the politicials were concerned about it, nowadays nobody cares. 

It might be unconciously, but we are very selfish. Perhaps we don't have the resources to fix it, but I have a foreboding that if we had the resources, we wouldn't be doing nothing to stop Ebola (because it doesn't affect us directly).

News source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/world/europe/british-health-worker-infected-with-ebola-in-sierra-leone.html?ref=health

NEWS: LETTING A BROKEN ARM HEAL WITHOUT SURGERY

Some scientists from Britain had the theory that in some cases, a broken arm can heal itself instead of going through surgery. As a proof to show if that theory was true, they studied 200 patiens with broken arms: a hundred had surgery and the other half didn't.
If it's not a grave case, the bone heals itself with the help of a sling, which immobilizes the arm.
The scientists followed the evolution of each patient to see the results and surprisingly, any pacient who hadn't had surgery noticed to have major health problems than the others. The levels of pain were the same. The only noticeable difference between the patiens was that who has surgery had more complications for breathing.

While reading this article, I felt that the news was misplaced in time. Healing without technology in 2015? Unbelievable. What I expected was that some scientists invented a way to repare broken arms with some kind of X-Ray machines.

Leaving the irony aside, I think that it's incredible that our body can heal such a damage by itself. Having a broken arm it's not having a scratch and perhaps that's the reason that if that happens, we get histerical and see surgery as the safer option.

Another thought that I had, was that probably this is how our ancestors cured broken bones. I imagined them in caves having the arms wrapped in dead skin animals.

And then it shocked me.

Scientists hadn't discovered anything new.

How can I be that stonished that the bone can heal itself if we have been doing it all of our lives? How could I be so blind? Every child knows that if you have a broken bone you don't get surgery, you get an arm sling and that's it. We are used to have all kind of technology, to have everything we want at the precised moment and the most important thing: we are used to use technology for everything.
But then, am I so used to technology that the technology itself is making me unuseful? My head is about to explode, I'd better disconnect for a bit if I don't want to get more dizzy. Yeah, I will go outside the balcony to have some fresh air and play Fruit Ninja.

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News source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/letting-a-broken-arm-heal-without-surgery/?ref=health 

A SOUL MATE AT THIS POINT

If someone asked me, while chatting with friends, who would be my prince charming I always came up with  the same answer: Oh! It would be a handsome, rich, tanned and strong guy who's also very amusing and with a never ending smile on his face. Still, would he be my soulmate? Clearly not.

I've never been so confused about how I want my soulmate to be. I don't have a clear image of how he would look like and so on I'm assuming that I don't really bother his appearance as much as his personality. Nevertheless I must say that I prefer tall boys over than short. Appart from that, I don't mind if he's not fit or if he has acne or any other flaws like those.

With that being said, my soulmate has to have humour, or at least a lot of confidence. He should have those characteristics that I haven't. I'm not saying that I'm pessimistic or that I never laugh but I couldn't stand being with someone who's exactly like me: we would never do anything different. I think that what I'm looking for in a relationship is not being equal but being balanced. I want someone who could cheer me up if I'm sad, but I don't demand a cheerful person. If I had to choose I would prefer a down to earth boy, but if sometimes he's just being silly I wouldn't mind to join him and have a good time.

The thing is, when you fall in love most of the times your soulmate is not going to be how you expected him or her to be. Usually there are traits that you'd change but, in my opinion, when you are with someone: a prince charming, a soul mate or a partner of life you should have to get on with the things that you don't quite like, and evolve as a couple.

ABSTRACT

Why is more useful a scientific illustration than a photography? Meanwhile a photo captures an instant, a scene, a scientific illustration is able to make a summary and to stand out the main details of what one wants to draw. In my project of Scientific Illustration, I made a research about the origins of this art, about the common tools and techniques and I also interviewed distinguished illustrators of each branch that scientific illustration has. As a result of all the information that I collected, I did my own scientific illustrations and I had the chance of entering into a world, vital for science, and sometimes unnoticed for the rest of us. (Interviewed illustrators: Pere Lluís León, Blanca Martí, Toni Llobet, Xavier Carlús, Hugo Prades, Albert Martínez, Eduardo Saíz, Juan Santiuste, Mark Garlick).