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Monday, December 21, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
How To Live Longer :)
Thursday, December 10, 2009
UP :) English is a difficult language!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Friday, October 09, 2009
Amenábar's ÁGORA
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Flamenco Project
Thursday, September 24, 2009
STOP CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
Sunday, September 20, 2009
100% Tarantino
Saturday, September 12, 2009
La universidad europea ya habla inglés
Monday, September 07, 2009
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Climate Change: Let's FACE IT
Millions of people living in the developing world are already feeling the devastating impacts of climate change. They will continue to be hit first, worst and hardest by climate change, a problem they did not create.
Now is the time for urgent action and justice on climate change. In the lead-up to crucial UN global climate change negotiation in Copenhagen this December, add you name and make a difference.
Join our campaign today to send a clear message to our Government calling for much needed leadership and action to ensure a fair and safe future for all.
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Pink Diplomacy
The Sunday Times
The move risks a backlash from countries where support for homosexuality runs contrary to state teaching and religious beliefs.
The fact that the initiative is being promoted by Bryant, a former Anglican curate, could exacerbate things. Bryant, 47, said: “It is completely up to staff in our embassies and consulates around the world to decide the most appropriate and effective way of making our case but we do encourage this important work because British values are based on fair play and the protection of the individual’s freedom. We are not naive about this work. In some places oppressive regimes make it some of the toughest work we do.”
Bryant thanked Robin Barnett, the ambassador to Bucharest, for attending a gay pride march in the Romanian capital that had previously been targeted by thugs hurling fireworks and stones. A 2008 study by the European Commission ranked Romania as the most homophobic in the European Union.
Officials confirmed this weekend that the new policy included financial backing. A Foreign Office briefing document sent to British missions, said Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria and Uzbekistan were “countries of particular concern”.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Man's First Step on the Moon
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Walter Cronkite, in memoriam
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tackling the drinking problem
By Nigel Morris, The Independent. Published: 16 August 2007
Why are we asking this now?
The murder of Garry Newlove, who was killed after he confronted a group of vandals outside his home in Cheshire, has prompted a plea by the county's Chief Constable for strong action to combat drinking among young people. Peter Fahy has called for the minimum drinking age to be raised from 18 to 21, for alcohol to be banned in most public places, for the price of beer and spirits to be raised and for tougher controls on the sale of drink.
Controversy also continues over the impact of the liberalisation in 2005 of the licensing laws, with Devon and Cornwall police this week reporting a 50 per cent rise in violent attacks in pubs and nightclubs since the reform.
How bad is the problem?
Anyone visiting the centre of a city or major town on a Friday or Saturday night is likely to be in little doubt that binge-drinking among young people is a serious problem. It is nothing new in British life. Riots broke out in the 1740s over the high taxes on gin, the Temperance Movement was founded in 1835 in response to fears over public drunkenness and tough licensing laws were passed in 1914 to stop the war effort being undermined by excess alcohol consumption.
However, the number of teenagers who drink regularly appears to have climbed sharply over the past two decades. Among 35 European nations, Britain had the third highest number of 15-year-olds (24 per cent) who said they had been inebriated at least 10 times in the past year. Teenage drinkers are consuming more alcohol and more often.
Increasing alcohol consumption is inevitably linked to crime and anti-social behaviour. There were 1,087,000 violent incidents in 2006-07 in which the victim believed their offender had been drinking, an increase of 6 per cent on the previous year.
Who is to blame for teenage drunkenness?
It is becoming relatively cheaper to get drunk, with alcohol now costing 54 per cent less in real terms than it did in 1980.
The introduction of cut-price happy hours in "vertical drinking" establishments and price-cutting competition between supermarkets have acted as a brake on the rising cost of alcohol. The popularity of drinks targeted at young adults - alcopops in the 1990s and high-strength bottled lager this decade - has drawn more youngsters into bars.
Despite successive enforcement campaigns, under-age drinkers appear to have few problems getting their hands on beer and spirits. Somerset police said yesterday that 67 per cent of pubs and clubs and more than a third of off-licences sold alcohol to children during an undercover operation. The police, however, can do little about adults buying alcohol for under-18s or about teenagers knocking back drink they find at home. And making alcohol more expensive or more difficult to acquire is tackling the problem's symptoms, rather than its causes. Are parents turning a blind eye to drinking by their children? And what messages are being sent out to our youth by the British tolerance, and arguably glamorisation, of drunkenness?
Has 24-hour licensing made a difference?
The 2005 Licensing Act enabled pubs, clubs, restaurants and off-licences to open around the clock, although in practice most have only applied for moderate increases to opening hours. Ministers argued that the move would help encourage the growth of a more civilised Continental-style cafe culture, while critics warned that levels of alcohol-fuelled trouble would rocket. The jury is out over the impact of the Act. The latest figures showed 940,522 violent crimes and cases of disorder and criminal damage were committed from 6pm to 6am in the year after licensed premises were allowed to open later, which is a negligible 0.7 per cent increase on the 933,701 recorded in the previous year.
Would raising the drinking age tackle the problem?
Mr Fahy argues that increasing the limit would send out a signal of society's determination to tackle drunkenness. The same radical conclusion was reached recently in a report by the left-leaning think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research. Alternatively, it called for teenage drinking to be controlled by a smart-card system.
Its author, Jasper Gerard, argued: "By raising the age threshold it is at least possible that those in their early and mid teens will not see drink as something they will soon be allowed to do, so therefore they might as well start doing it surreptitiously now. Instead they might come to see it as it should be: forbidden."
The Home Office Minister Meg Hillier firmly ruled out such a step yesterday, arguing that it would "demonise or prevent a lot of adults who are drinking quite responsibly".
Raising the limit would put Britain out of step with the rest of western Europe, where levels of drunkenness are lower but minimum drinking ages range between 14 and 18. The United States has a 21-year-old limit on buying alcohol, although some states allow consumption under that age. A limit of 19 applies in most of Canada and 18 in Australia.
Should we ban drinking in public places?
Local authorities have the power to outlaw alcohol consumption in designated areas and 100 councils have followed the lead of Coventry, which imposed the first ban 20 years ago. However, Mr Fahy wants to turn around the presumption of the law, requiring councils to apply for special permission to allow public drinking, modelling the move on the recently imposed smoking ban.
Again, a Government which has spoken of encouraging more civilised drinking has given a chilly response to the idea. Any politician who attempted to ban al fresco drinking would take a gamble. It could lead to the most unlikely people becoming criminalised - the family who have a bottle of beer with their picnic or the music fans who enjoy an open-air concert with a bottle of wine.
What is the Government doing?
There is no question the Government recognises it has a problem on its hands, although the extent to which it can influence a long-term social trend is clearly limited.
To the delight of tabloid newspapers that have denounced the new licensing laws, Gordon Brown has ordered a review of 24-hour drinking which will report by the end of the year. It is unlikely to find enough evidence to justify overturning the legislation.
A further Department of Health review into the cost of alcohol could respond to doctors' and campaigners' concerns by backing an increase in alcohol duties. Again it would be a brave politician that campaigns on increases in the price of a pint of beer or bottle of wine - even though the ill effects of alcohol cost society £20bn a year.
Should the legal drinking age rise?
Yes...
* The move would send out a strong message of society's abhorrence of drunkenness
* Young adults would start drinking at an older age, with benefits for their health
* Banning teenagers from buying alcohol could cut alcohol-fuelled rowdiness
No...
* It would be a nonsense when youngsters can marry at 18 or drive at 17
* No other western European nation bans alcohol until the age of 21 and most have lower drunkenness rates
* It would be unfair on the majority of young adults who drink responsibly and in moderation
Sunday, July 12, 2009
As Consumerism Spreads, Earth Suffers
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Seville, 40 years after Stonewall
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Visitor_film
Sixty-two-year-old Walter Vale (Jenkins) is sleepwalking through his life. Having lost his passion for teaching and writing, he fills the void by unsuccessfully trying to learn to play classical piano. When his college sends him to Manhattan to attend a conference, Walter is surprised to find a young couple has taken up residence in his apartment. Victims of a real estate scam, Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), a Syrian man, and Zainab (Danai Gurira), his Senegalese girlfriend, have nowhere else to go. In the first of a series of tests of the heart, Walter reluctantly allows the couple to stay with him.
Touched by his kindness, Tarek, a talented musician, insists on teaching the aging academic to play the African drum. The instrument’s exuberant rhythms revitalize Walter’s faltering spirit and open his eyes to a vibrant world of local jazz clubs and Central Park drum circles. As the friendship between the two men deepens, the differences in culture, age and temperament fall away.
After being stopped by police in the subway, Tarek is arrested as an undocumented citizen and held for deportation. As his situation turns desperate, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friend with a passion he thought he had long ago lost. When Tarek’s beautiful mother Mouna (Hiam Abbass) arrives unexpectedly in search of her son, the professor’s personal commitment develops into an unlikely romance.
And it’s through these new found connections with these virtual strangers that Walter is awakened to a new world and a new life.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Home_the trailer
Home, a documentary by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, renowned photographer of "Earth From Above" fame, will air this Friday on the National Geographic Channel at 9 p.m. Check out the High Definition trailer on YouTube! It is awesome!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Endemic rape and abuse of Irish children in Catholic care
The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.
The high court judge Sean Ryan today unveiled the 2,600-page final report of Ireland's commission into child abuse, which drew on testimony from thousands of former inmates and officials from more than 250 church-run institutions. Police were called to the news conference amid angry scenes as victims were prevented from attending.
More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families – a category that often included unmarried mothers – were sent to Ireland's austere network of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages and hostels from the 1930s until the last facilities shut in the 1990s.
The findings prompted the new Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, to say that it took "courage" for those clergy involved in child sex abuse to confront their actions. In an interview to be broadcast tonight on ITV News at Ten, he said: "I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did."
The Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (Isoca), an organisation set up to help victims, condemned the newly appointed head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales for his remarks.
"Rubbish is too kind of word for what the archbishop has said. I believe I have heard this kind of twaddle uttered by politicians in Ireland like Bertie Ahern, the former prime minister. It is the verbiage of un-reason and it leaves me cold. What the Archbishop really has to do is take a long hard look at the character and nature of the people he is talking about and ask himself if they are capable of being good," said Patrick Walsh.
The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors pursued policies that increased the danger. Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual abuse but instead endured frequent assaults and humiliation designed to make them feel worthless.
"In some schools a high level of ritualised beating was routine ... Girls were struck with implements designed to maximise pain and were struck on all parts of the body," the report said. "Personal and family denigration was widespread."
The report concluded that when confronted with evidence of sex abuse, religious authorities responded by transferring offenders to another location, where in many instances they were free to abuse again.
"There was evidence that such men took up teaching positions sometimes within days of receiving dispensations because of serious allegations or admissions of sexual abuse," the report said. "The safety of children in general was not a consideration."
The Catholic church had been steeling itself for the report, which was repeatedly delayed by church lawsuits, missing documentation and alleged government obstruction. The Christian Brothers delayed the investigation for more than a year with a lawsuit that successfully defended their members' right to anonymity in all references in the report, even in cases in which individual Christian Brothers had been convicted of sexual and physical attacks on children.
The church had already been under fire over the sexual misbehaviour of several priests in various Irish parishes. The commission's experts have sought to produce a comprehensive portrait of sexual, physical and emotional damage inflicted on the child victims. The thousands of survivors said they had no safe way to tell their stories until the investigation began because much of Irish Catholic society regarded them as liars.
Isoca today said it was now up to the Vatican to investigate its religious orders in the republic. John Kelly, the Isoca co-ordinator in Dublin, said: "Now that the Ryan [Laffoy] commission is finished, we call upon ... Pope Benedict XVI to convene a special consistory court to fully investigate the activities of the Catholic religious orders in Ireland.
"Amongst other things, such a court could establish the whereabouts of Irish state assets that were misappropriated over many years by the religious orders and make restitution to the Irish state exchequer."
During the commission's investigations, oral evidence was collected from more than 1,000 people, mainly aged from their 50s to 70s. Several hundred travelled back to Ireland from the US and Australia to describe their childhood of terror and intimidation.
One victim, John Walsh, of Isoca, called the report a hatchet job that left open wounds gaping. "The little comfort we have is the knowledge that it vindicated the victims who were raped and sexually abused," he said.
"I'm very angry, very bitter, and feel cheated and deceived. I would have never opened my wounds if I'd known this was going to be the end result. It has devastated me and will devastate most victims because there is no criminal proceedings and no accountability whatsoever."
The commission's original judge, Mary Laffoy, resigned from her post in 2003 over claims that the Irish department of education – which was in charge of inspecting the orphanages and industrial schools – was refusing to hand over documents to her.
The Guardian, Henry McDonald, Ireland correspondent guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 20 May 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Norman Foster, the global architect
Norman Foster, un humanista visionario
El País, 21/05/2009
Deslumbrados por la escala colosal y la audacia técnica de tantos de sus edificios, con frecuencia olvidamos lo que la obra de Foster tiene de utopía social y aventura estética. Desde sus primeros proyectos, como el realizado para la naviera noruega de Fred Olsen en los muelles de Londres, que reunía a los descargadores y a los oficinistas en un espacio único limitado por una tersa fachada de vidrio que era a la vez un logro constructivo y una declaración de intenciones artística, su trayectoria ha procurado reconciliar los valores democráticos y la innovación tecnológica con el refinamiento visual.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
The Final Frontier
El Atlantis, en órbita terrestre a 560 kilómetros de altura y a 28.000 kilómetros por hora sobre la superficie de la Tierra, fue fotografiado con una cámara Canon 5D Mark II y un telescopio de 12 centímetros de diámetro utilizando un filtro solar. La nave mide 37 metros de longitud y 24 de envergadura.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Friday, May 15, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
Juan Marsé, Premio Cervantes
"Nunca me vi donde ustedes me ven ahora. Los que me conocen saben que me da bastante apuro hablar en público", advirtió nada más saludar a una audiencia en la que faltaban sus amigos muertos -Gil de Biedma, Barral, García Hortelano, Ángel González- y Carmen Balcells. A ésta, convaleciente de un accidente doméstico, se dirigió con una ocurrencia de Groucho Marx: "Me has dado tantas alegrías, que tengo ordenado, para cuando me muera, que me incineren y te entreguen el diez por ciento de mis cenizas".
Si la literatura, como dicen los manuales, es un triángulo formado por el escritor, la escritura y la realidad, Juan Marsé (Barcelona, 1933) habló de las tres. Y lo hizo, pese al chaqué, quitándose importancia, con una mezcla de humildad e ironía. El Rey lo resumió con una palabra: autenticidad. Don Juan Carlos puso la anécdota de la mañana. Empezó su discurso saltándose el turno de la ministra de Cultura, Ángeles González-Sinde: "Hoy las letras españolas...", arrancó. Luego paró y dijo sonriendo: "Se ve que ya..."
Si la ministra, en un discurso que destacó por su altura literaria, habló del premiado como de un escritor hecho a sí mismo capaz de "engarzar la ternura y lo canalla", el propio autor de Rabos de lagartija recordó su ingreso a los 13 años en un taller de relojería. Allí estaba, relató, cuando publicó sus primeros cuentos en Ínsula y su primera novela en Seix Barral, la editorial en la que fue recibido como el "escritor obrero" que faltaba en el catálogo. Eran los años del realismo social, y él cumplió las expectativas artísticas; las sociológicas no. Y eso que es un firme partidario del realismo, "el único lugar donde puedes adquirir un buen bistec".
La cita es de Woody Allen, una de las autoridades invocadas ayer por Marsé. Otra de ellas fue Ezra Pound: "El esmero en el trabajo, el cuidado de la lengua, es la única convicción moral del escritor". En eso se resume la teoría literaria de alguien al que la metaliteratura le deja "frío" porque la cocina del escritor nunca le ha parecido, apuntó, "un sitio muy cómodo para recibir visitas". Ayer, además, subrayó un viejo aviso: "No me considero un intelectual, solamente un narrador".
Hechas todas las advertencias, el creador del Pijoaparte puso sus ojos en el mundo sin quitarlos de su propia vida. Así, destacó la riqueza que supone "la dualidad cultural y lingüística de Cataluña". Si él es un "catalán que escribe en lengua castellana" lo es, dijo, porque en esta lengua "ha mamado los mitos literarios y cinematográficos, la que ha dado alas a la imaginación".
Poco antes, Marsé había criticado la "nefasta influencia cultural y educativa" de la televisión. En la última fila del paraninfo escuchaba sus palabras Luis Fernández Fernández, presidente de RTVE. Poco después se refirió a las armas de destrucción masiva, que "resultaron ser un par de zapatos". En la mesa presidencial estaba Esperanza Aguirre.
La guerra de Irak le sirvió para destacar una de las grandes enseñanzas del Quijote, un libro que él compró "en cómodos plazos" a un vecino y que leyó a los 16 años sentado los domingos por la tarde en el parque Güell. La enseñanza es ésta: las cosas no siempre son lo que parecen. Algo que él mismo pudo comprobar al contrastar la realidad de la posguerra con lo que el régimen de Franco decía que era esa realidad. Eran tiempos en los que la memoria colectiva estaba "sojuzgada, esquilmada y manipulada" y en los que había que quemar los libros peligrosos. El novelista contó ayer cómo su padre expurgó los suyos.
A su reivindicación de la memoria, Juan Marsé añadió una defensa de la imaginación: "Son dos palabras que van siempre entrelazadas, y a menudo resulta difícil separarlas". Además, dijo, una excesiva dosis de realidad puede resultar indigesta, "incluso para un adicto a la realidad y al bistec como Sancho y como yo".
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
B2 Final Verb Exercises_May
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
The Lancet rebukes Pope Benedict
'The Catholic Church's ethical opposition to birth control and support of marital fidelity and abstinence in HIV prevention is well known. But, by saying that condoms exacerbate the problem of HIV/AIDS, the Pope has publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue.'
'The international community was quick to condemn the comment. The governments of Germany, France, and Belgium released statements criticising the Pope's views. Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society, called the comment "irresponsible and dangerous". UNAIDS, the UN Population Fund, and WHO released an updated position statement on HIV prevention and condoms, which said that "the male latex condom is the single, most efficient, available technology to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV". Amidst the fury, even the Vatican tried to alter the pontiff's wording. On the Holy See's website, the Vatican's head of media, Father Federico Lombari, quoted the Pope as having said that there was a "risk that condoms...might increase the problem".'
'Whether the Pope's error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear. But the comment still stands and the Vatican's attempts to tweak the Pope's words, further tampering with the truth, is not the way forward. When any influential person, be it a religious or political leader, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record. Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS worldwide.'
Thursday, March 26, 2009
hablamejoringles.com
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Richard Serra_sculptor
Snake (1996), is a work which the artist made specifically for the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. Consisting of three serpentine ribbons of steel made up of six sections (two per curve), Snake totals 104 feet in length, reaches thirteen feet in height and is over twenty-one feet wide. There is no discernible vertical line in the structure. These new forms seem to defy gravity and logic, making solid steel appear as malleable as felt. Shifting in unexpected ways as viewers walk in and around them, these sculptures create surprising experiences of space and balance and provoke a dizzying sensation of solid steel and space in motion. Susan Cross