The Wolf of Wall Street

Plot:

The film is about a stockbroker from Wall Street called Jordan Belfort. At the beginning of the film Jordan starts to work in Wall Street and early start the brokerage firm Stratford-Oakmont teamed with his partner Donny Azoff. Their company starts with some childhood friends and quickly grows in number of employees and their status in the trading community and Wall Street grows too by scamming costumers. All their life turns around the drugs, prostitutes and parties which draw the attention to the authorities and make him popular in Wall Street. Belfort is being investigated by FBI and starts to keep his money in a Swiss bank. Finally the FBI discovers all his illegalities and sent to the jail during 3 years but with a lot of privileges due to his money. At the end of the film he has already left the prison and is a motivational speaker making a lecture about selling.

Opinion:

It’s an entertaining story that shows all the excesses of the rich people. The fact that is based on the truth life of a stockbroker makes the story more believable and interesting. Moreover it shows the lack of ethics in the in business.

 In addition, about the justice, in the moment when Jorden is sent to the jail it seems that finally justice is done because he is going to pay for the scams he has done and for all the excesses with drugs but finally he have an easy stay in prison with privileges because he is rich. In my opinion this lets the justice in doubt and makes me think if really justice is equal for everybody because, following this example, a drugs lord who has won a lot of money illegally can stay in prison with privileges.

First soccer, rugby players diagnosed with CTE

Summary:

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in many athletes with a history of repetitive brain blows. The repeated concussions promote that the tau, which is a human protein, spills out of the cells and when is widespread can choke off and disable the neural pathways which control the memory, the judgement and fear. Symptoms include depression, aggression, sclerosis, disorientation and dementia or early Alzheimer at the final stages of the disease, but scientists can only definitively diagnose it after death by looking at the abnormal build-up of “tau”.

This disease has been recently found it in a lot of athlete’s brain. Although it could seem that the American football players, the wrestlers or the hockey players should be the more affected for the hard impacts they receive, the disease have been also found it in footballers, baseball players or rugby players. The blow which receive a football header it can seem innocuous but the recent studies show that the damage can add up.

There have been a lot of studies on former athletes and a lot of early deaths or even suicides have been related with this disease.

Opinion:

When I read this news I became so worried, because the studies show a lot of former athletes with neurodegenerative diseases which died at early ages, but in my case I’m goalkeeper and I don’t use to head the ball. However it’s worrying and in my opinion a solution should be find it.  

Words learnt:

Blow

Concussion

Spillsout

Chokeoff

Widespread

Addup

Wrestlers

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/28/health/cte-soccer-rugby/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Copy of Mein Kampf signed by Hitler sells for $65,000

Summary:

An autographed Adolf Hitler's Nazi treatise, Mein Kampf, has sold at auction in Los Angeles for $64,850.  The treatise is divided in two cloth-bound volumes which date from 1925 and 1926. The inscriptions are from Hitler offering Bauer, an early Nazi party member, his best wishes for Christmas.

Mein Kamp is a book which Hitler wrote when he was jailed for his failed putsch attempt and it rails against Judaism and communism. Nate Sanders, the auctioneer, consider the book heinous but he says that for him is only an auction item like any other.

Opinion:

In my opinion this book should be prohibited because in this book Hitler wrote the basis of his Nazi ideology that promoted the cruel genocide of a lot of people and the World War II. Apart from that I think it should be prohibited, I think that the buyers are giving importance to the book and to Hitler by buying it for this exaggerated price.

Words learnt:

Cloth-bound

Putsch

Railagainst

Heinous

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26396882

Personal air vehicle: Is this possible?

Summary:

According to Missy Cummings, professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the future where we will have an air vehicle isn’t far away. The idea of the air vehicle would be the intersection of a drone with a robotic car, so that your plane was also your car. The main propriety of a drone is that uses a fly-by-wire system which drives alone for a pre-set route. Drones have a negative bias in the media, says Cummings, because they are essentially seen as spy cameras, however they don’t know that the drones technology is used in conventional planes. To build these vehicles it should be necessary to use this drone technology to avoid the tragic accidents which can cause our slow human reaction system.

There really aren’t any technological hurdles to this idea, says Cummings, however there are psychological and cultural hurdles that slow the process. We tend to distrust from the drones controlled by computers, we tend to want to be in our comfort zone that in this field are the conventional vehicles, and finally it will be very expensive to build a drone because we haven’t got the robots to make a big manufacturing process.

Opinion:

In my opinion some day we will use any type of flying vehicle like a type of plane or what’s called like a “jetpack”… but the question is: If we have the technology to do it, why we haven’t done it yet? It could be interesting to see some prototypes and others but if anyone is demanding desperately for them probably we don’t need them. I think that probably in a long time this technology will be able to give us a better life quality but the problem is that we are now in our comfort zone, where we are secure, always is the same and this technology would suppose a radical change in our society, a radical change which we are not prepared to.

Words learnt:

Hurdles

Bias

Drone

Fly-by-wire

         http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20131031-a-flying-car-for-everyone
             

Carnival and exams: Hard days for batxillerat students

The carnival is coming and it seems that we won’t have fun at all because we will be thinking on our exams. This year the two-weak exams of the end of the 2^nd term have just coincided with the two weekends of carnival so we will have to study hard these days.

About the carnival, this year we will dress up like Eskimos. The decision of this disguise it was difficult. First of all, nobody agreed about a disguise, so we proposed several ones and then we voted. Between the options, we could choose sailors, soldiers, animals… But finally the votes indicate that most of the people wanted to dress up like animals. The problem was that there were more girls than boys and while almost all the girls votes the animals disguise, no boy votes this one so we don’t want this disguise. When the girls chose that they wanted a polar bear disguise, the problem was quickly solved because the boys decided to dress up like Eskimos to choose something with a little relation.

After this decision, after prepare the “carriage” and after all the problems we have had, finally we won’t be able to enjoy the carnival due to the exams. Two weeks of almost every-day exams wait us, and we won’t be able to have a little enjoyment before it. Hard days for batxillerat students.

"La que se avecina"

“La que se avecina” is a popular Spanish TV series. This series is focused on a neighbourhood community of an isolated building called “Mirador de Montepinar” located on the outskirts of a big city. This is a comedy series which debuted on 2007 on “Telecinco” and became very popular. Currently is being emitted on “Telecinco” on Wednesdays at 10:30 pm. Until now, they have made 7 seasons and more than 80 chapters which each one last about an hour and a half.

The plot is about this neighbourhood where there are several families that face different problems and use to solve them in an extravagant way. They are all funny characters which are used like a satire of many types of the Spanish society. They use witty and catchy phrases which have made the series so popular. Although they use to face daily problems related with the economic crises, they use to add some current situations like it could be the evictions, the divorces, the political corruption.

Although most of the characters try to be funny, there are some ones who always take the leadership and who are the funniest. For me the funniest characters are Antonio Recio, who is a fish wholesealer; Amador Ribas, who is a divorced former banker currently without job who wants to enjoy his life; Fermin Trujillo, Maxi and Enrique Pastor.

Spain PM says Catalan independence referendum 'illegal'

Summary:

Tensions between the Spanish government and Catalonia's regional government have been rising in recent months. On December the Catalan authorities said the referendum would be on 9 November 2014, but Mariano Rajoy, Spanish prime minister, has vowed to block the vote and has said that a referendum on independence for Catalonia would be illegal so it can’t take place.

Spanish authorities thought that the economic crisis fuelled the Catalan nationalism but Mariano Rajoy is optimistic and has said that they expect a good growth forecast. Under current Spanish law, the referendum would not be binding because it has not received the backing of the central government. However Artur Mas, the Catalan president, has said that the referendum could be celebrated like a “consultation”.

Opinion:

In my opinion the referendum should be done and will be done because is the only way to know what people thinks and to solve the problem. I think the position of the Spanish authorities is only worsening the situation and is promoting more the vote for the independence.

Words learnt:

Vowed

 Forecast

 Binding

 Fuelled

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26341833

African migrants 'storm' Spain's Melilla-Morocco border

Summary:

Three hundred African migrants have stormed a border fence in Melilla attempting to cross from Morocco to the Spanish territory. Ninety-six migrants were arrested while about 100 managed to cross. The migrants hurled rocks to the security forces while they tried to cross the six-metre double wire fence. In the clashes, a lot of migrants were wounded, and 13 security force members were wounded too.

It hasn’t been an isolated case because there have been a lot of similar events also by sea.  Melilla is a major crossing point, together with Ceuta, for sub-Saharan Africans seeking work or asylum in Europe.

Opinion:

In my opinion, the migrants’ situation of poverty justifies their acts of trying to cross but is a controversial question because of the difficulty of finding a solution. The problem is that it’s not viable to let all them pass, but I think it could be good to establish several reasonable restrictions like the fact of speaking Spanish, haven’t been at the jail… that could be more useful that the simple fact of don’t let nobody enters the country.

Words learnt:

Fence

Stormed

Wounded

Clash

Seeking

Hurled

Wire

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26329018

Empiricism related with "Pride and prejudice"

The first reference of the book to the empiricism appears just on the first sentence when it says “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife” which is similar to the starting sentence of Locke’s “Essay concerning human understanding”. In the Locke’s treatise or essay it starts saying something like this in reference to European rationalists who thought that there were innate ideas and universal ideas in the human moral and understanding, but in contrast, Locke thought that the innate ideas and the universal ideas didn’t exist, so he used that sentence ironically. In the same way Jane Austen, the writer of the book, uses this sentence ironically to say that a lot of people thinks that but it isn’t true or it shouldn’t be true, showing her clear feminist ideology.

The relation between the book and the empiricism is especially focused on the term prejudice. The empiricism defends that the knowledge is determined only by experience derived from sense perception. This could be confused with prejudice, but this sense perception that Locke defends is not the first impression or view using only a sense but a knowledge achieved by using all our senses and built with the repeated experiences. In the book we see that the prejudices are made by the first impressions or the first experiences but like the empiricism we need some repeated experiences and to know more details to get a good and a specific idea about people or about things.

Can Internet change the world for the better?

Nowadays Internet has become an important tool for our society because of the facilities it provides us in a lot of fields. However, Internet can have a hidden dark side. We have to consider both sides.

On the one hand, internet make easier to be robbed or swindled and moreover let us too exposed and we lose our privacy.

On the other hand, Internet allows us to make economic transactions in our home or even in our smartphone. This, for example, let us buy airplane tickets, to transfer money from the bank. In addition, Internet is a great tool to communicate more quickly all over the world. We can share or search easily a lot of information.

In conclusion, Internet helps us in a lot of areas and makes our life more comfortable but we have to be aware because there are a lot of hidden risks and you don’t know who is behind it.

My research project: Obesity and overweight (research paper abstract and self evaluation)

This project consists of the study of obesity and overweight in general and also in our high school. This project is divided in two main parts: the theoretical and the practical.  In the theoretical part I have talked about the causes, the consequences, the treatment, the current statistical data and other facets of the disease. The practical part is focused on the stigmatization and on the statistical data in our high school. The information obtained in the different practical parts has been used to establish comparisons and to understand the real situation of the obesity in our high school and trying to make a good reflection of our current society.


Finally, here I let you the presentation I used for my project to let you know a little bit about it. (in catalan)

Self-evaluation:

Here, I let you the self-evaluation of the oral presentation:

Roger Farrés: Research project (Ovesity and Overweight)
Presentation (10%)	Do you use any resources? Are the resources relevant and attractive and focused on the topic? Do they support your presentation? Is the timing 5-7 minutes? Yes, I used Prezi as the main resource. Moreover I used some statistical graphics to make the iformation more understandable and to keep the audience focused on the presentation. The presentation lasted 7 minutes more a less.		9
Body language and eye contact (10%)	Are you looking at your audience most of the time? Are you reading occasionally from your notes? Are you doing any gestures / movement to hold the attention of the audience? I think that this was the worst part of my presentation because it’s difficult to look at the audience, and I used to watch a lot the screen and the paper. Moreover I think that the fact of make the presentation alone made that I became more nervous.		5
Structure (10%)	Do you organize your ideas in order of importance? Do you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear? Yes, I did an index to put the ideas in order, and I used some discourse markers.		9
Content (40%)	Do you introduce interesting, NEW information to your audience? Is your information detailed and clear? Do you give / show examples? Is your information copied from a source or is it original? Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books…? I think I did an interesting presentation with new and detailed information for all the audience showing them the theoretical part and the most relevant statistical data. Moreover I think I talked about the project from different points of view and from differet topics.		40
Language (20%)	Is your grammar correct, complex? Is your vocabulary rich and varied? Do you use sentence linkers? Do you use pause fillers? I think that I used a correct grammar, with a lot of topic-related vocabulary. About the linkers and the pause fillers I think I have used a few. Even though we can always improve and probably we can improve a lot of gramatical structures.		15
Pronunciation and intonation (10%)	Do you know how to pronounce all your words? Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? Do you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions? I knew how to pronounce the words because I had searched on the google translator and in howjsay. I did it with some breaks to read or pronounce difficult words but in general I think I done it quite fluid.		7
Final Mark: (100%)		85%

As I has said before, I think that the worst part of my presentation was the body language. For this reason, I think this is the part I have to improve. Here, I let you the video of my presentation. Due to several problems it’s difficult to hear the sound and it finishes a minute before the presentation ends.

And finally here, I let you the prezi I used in the presentation:

Luís Aragonés: Spain mourns the loss of "tiki taka" master

Summary:

Luís Aragonés died the last Saturday on 2nd February at the age of 75. He retired the last year due to the health problems which have led him to his death.

Called “the wise of Hortaleza”, Luís Aragonés was player and then he was coach from a lot of teams during almost 30 years. In his last career he was Spanish national team’s coach and won the 2008 European Championship title leaving them the legacy of the “tiki taka” passing style which he established  by making a brilliant breakthrough changing the national team’s style and discarding several “untouchable” players.

All the Spanish team have mourn the loss of Luís by making “silence minutes” and a lot of players and presidents have shown the sorrow they feel.

Opinion:

In my opinion he was a great player, a great coach and seemed a very great and close person. He was a wise in football and he achieved to excite a lot of people in this country by showing them that there’s nothing impossible. He showed to the entire world that without world class stars but a good team work and commitment a lot of things can be achieved.

It’s a tragic loss but the Spanish team’s mourning has been touching.

Words learnt:

-Legacy

-Breakthrough

-Sorrow

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/01/sport/football/luis-aragones-spain-football/index.html?iref=storysearch