My Vacations (blog session 6)

Hi:

  Have you think yet what you gonna do for this vacations, this short vacations? I have thought it yet. On this summer I want to travel to somewhere in Chile, and I’ve thought about the Limari Valley, that is on the 4^th region, between Illapel and Elqui valleys. When I was child, I lived there, so I have really good remembers, like when I went to the river, or go deep into hills and the mountain range mountains to the smalls towns, those places were so quiet, and I think that were more “mystic” than the Elqui Valley. I have put in contact with some really old friends that live in Monte Patria (the town where I lived) in case that I would go there.

I also want to go to the south. I already have gone to the south, and I were marveled with all the view that you can see everywhere. The lakes, bushes, volcanoes, rivers and also there are really nice cities and towns, like Frutillar, Puerto Varas, Lycanray or some places in Villarica, and a lot more.

I’m starting saving some money for the travel, and the rest I want to get it on the way, and how I probably will go with some friends that play music, we want to make money playing music on the street. I will carry a camp tend, so the cost of accommodation will be cheaper than if we stayed on cabins or hotels, etc. So those are my plans, what are yours?... see you!

Green Life

Hello dear classmates:

 Today we need to talk about the environmental cares and also about our ecological practices. On the latest years this topic has become really common, and every time you turn on the TV you can see something that has relation with the ecological staffs. In fact there are adds that shows their products make with recyclable materials, etc.

If people want to learn about, they probably would find a lot of information on websites, www.greenpeace.com for example, is a website that has a lot of information and in various topics, like global warming, international news, national, projects that are damaging for the nature, etc.  There are another websites also where you can get information about how to have a new style of life that contributes to the nature, by recycling, eating news diets, salving energy, etc. They teach you what to do and how you can do it. I use to participate in some activities but now I don’t do it.

In my case, I don’t have a really a green life, but I want to started to be more conscious about the environments. The only thing that I use to do is recycle the glass bottles, and sometimes batteries. I want to recycle more that I do actually and for that I need to search where I can do it. I want also to use a bike, because is a good exercise, you don’t contaminate and also you save money.

About the carbon-sprint, I haven’t heard to much about it, but I think that would read about.  See you.

Dear Professor, I think my husband may be a Neanderthal

Hello:

 I’ve found an interesting article on The Guardian, that talks about our genetic relation with the Neanderthals. It calls my attention because the teacher showed us on evolution classes this research.

The biologist, on May 2010, said that our modern human ancestor had sex with the Neanderthals in Europe and Western Asia.  There are some people who descend from that interbreeding.

This information came out in a talk, when prof. Svante Pääbo  and the team that created the draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome showed the evidence of the comparison between the modern human genome and Neanderthal genome. They found out that the human genome have some Neanderthal’s genome segments.

Certainly was a reaction on the people, who started to send mails to Pääbo expressing that they were sure they (or some close person of them) were more Neanderthal than the investigation showed.  In fact, some 45 men said they were fully or partially Neanderthals and  the same with two women. On the letters, there were more cases of suspect of men (that they probably have something of Neanderthal) than women. In fact some women offer their husbands for some future investigations.

Pääbo, said that those appreciations where far from have some truth on them. He pointed that probably the reason of that people reaction and thinking were our stereotype of our cousins.  He also said that "It says something about how we view Neanderthals" making mention of what people says about the topic.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2011/nov/16/dear-professor-husband-neanderthal

Fly to the moon.

Hi, today I want to talk about my biggest dream… to go out from the planet earth. Since I was child, I always like to see the stars by hours imagining what there are on that far, far, far places. I used to watch (until today) universe documentaries, like the ones of Discovery Channel or History Channel, etc.

 Since we were child, in the school teach us about the solar system, the galaxies, planets, etc., but some times I wonder myself if all that is real, are we really floating in an infinite universe?. I know that the whole science has studies and investigations about this topic since seventeenth century, and even very old civilizations and cultures has the idea of planets going around the sun.  I don’t really doubt about those things, but for me is something so incredible, I think that we know maybe that the earth is round or we can know the earth’s size, but I’m sure that there aren’t many people who have seen this with their own eyes.  

I want to see some day the earth from the space, I want to walk on the moon , or even farther  on Mars… and feel and see that all that things that we know are real and that we really are in the middle of nothing. If this happen one day, I will be the happiest man in the world, just thinking in the fact of landing in mars, or see the earth from the moon, makes me get really exited. I really keep the hope that one day I will can go to the space, because now at days the technology is develop itself very, very fast, so I think that on the future it would be easier and more common the space travels for everyone.

Japan!

Hi:

 today I’ll tell you about a place I’d go if I’d have all the money I need. And that place would be Japan. I like a lot of places and countries also, but this one is the most mysterious for me, and the way that they live I think that is very interesting.
 I don’t know really much things about Japan, only that they are really good sea food eaters, and also that they eat a completely different diet than us. I know also that they have a lot of martial arts, like “ninjutzu” that is the one that ninjas practice.
One of the things that most call my attention is the scenery of Japan. On that island just the 18% of the land is habitable, the rest are hills, mountains and valleys where a city couldn’t be built. After I spent the money visiting tourist places, I would like to go to the country side and work and live with the people for know by this way their life style and customaries. By the way I would need to learn Japanese language and writing, something really exiting I think.

I think that Japanese people have a lot of things to teach us to make better our lifes.  

Spartacus the series

Hello Classmates:

 Today I will talk about Spartacus, a series that came out the last year, and it have had a lot of success. This series have been produced by “Starz”, a film studio that makes series based on historical stories, like Spartacus (based on the story of the slave in the roman empire) or Pendragon, a series based on the Arthur King legend.

 I watch Spartacus for first time on April of this year when I went home, and my parents had bought the full series on DVD. And when I saw it I got trapped with the plot instantaneously.  The plot is very intense and the script is awesome, the way that the characters speak is like heard speaking an antique roman.

The Series show the life of Spartacus as a gladiator since the moment when he gets into the barracks for first time until he riot with all the gladiators against their roman master or “numinus”. On the series you will see a lot of action, blood, suspense and scenes with sexual content. I think that all this characteristics together show very well the roman culture and life style and that is why I like so much this series.

See you

Education and Creativity

Hi:

 Education and creativity is the topic for this post. I think that that is a really interesting topic, for the moment that we are living in our country and how is the occidental world educating their child. I have share the same point of view, that school kill creativity, from some time ago.

I’m agree that the schools doesn’t foment a development of our creativity, because everything that we learned in the school is something already done, we don’t need to think about how you get to some math formulas and why the formula is like it is. The only thing that we do (the most of the times) is learn something and then apply it (but not on the most of the cases).

If with the traditional knowledge given by the school there aren’t so many activities for develop the creativity, what could we expect about artistic subjects? I know that in other countries the school realize more artistic activities than in Chile, and they also have better implements for that. But the matter is that those kinds of activities are not the most important in the curricular contents. I think that one important part of the problem is, as Ken Robinson says, that the schools are made for prepare university people, and obviously not everyone has the same facilities and skills for that, but they are really good in arts for example.

I hope that the education would be saw in other way with the time, because there are every time more people that take care about this matter and are suggesting new kinds of education. In fact there are some schools that have different philosophies of education, like Waldorf or Montessori. I suppose that the reason of why we don’t have an education that stimulates our creativity is that the system need people who doesn’t care too much about why things happens. I think that creativity make a awake mind, not like a sheep who doesn’t occurred how to change things that are not right.

See you!