"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" Review

Since the theatrical release of "Star Wars: A new Hope", viewers had been creating theories of what happened before. However that uncertainty ended when "Rogue One" was released.

This movie takes place just before the first movie of the saga. The outstanding performance of Diego Luna and Felicity Jones makes the movie unforgettable. Furthermore, it has a haunting melody. The original soundtrack does not appears, however it has a similar melody, which makes it very nostalgic.

As regards the plot the main objective is obtaining the blueprints of the Death Star so that the rebels can destroy it. In order to do that, they have to fight against the Empire. We can find from spaceships battles to intense ground confrontations.

I strongly recommend this movie if you have already seen the original movies, however if you haven't is a good oportunity for you to push out into this massive world.

The most uplifting and the bigger downer

Watching back on the movies I have seen so far, I can think about the most uplifting and the bigger downer films of them all. Everybody should know which type of movie fits better with their mood or their likes, therefore I will talk about "Deadpool" and "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas".

On the one hand we have Deadpool as the most uplifting of the movies I have seen. The movie is filled with jokes combined with action scenes. Basically Wade Wilson, known as Deadpool, wants to find the one responsible for his horrible transformation to end with his life. The outstanding performance of Ryan Reynolds places the movie at the top of the chart and in my opinion the best action movie I have seen.

On the other hand the most downer of all the movies so far is The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. It takes place in the Nazi Germany when concentration camps were a thing. It all begins when the son of a high class family crosses paths with a Nazi concentration camp and at the other side of the barbed wire a boy with a striped pyjama.  The story places you in the reality that the prisoners that were at the concentration camps had to affront.

To conclude, it is necessary to say that I strongly recommend both films and you should now choose which one you will see next, according with your preferences. 

Los sentidos

En la clase de Biología leímos sobre los sentidos y su evolución. Por lo tanto para repasar la profesora nos pidió que busquemos imágenes relacionadas a cada uno de los sentidos y que escribamos una breve descripción.

Para verte mejor
La visión es el sentido mas importante para el ser humano y apareció entre los seres vivos hace 800 millones de años. En los mamíferos, la retina se aplana para ver de lejos y se relaja para ver de cerca.

Para escucharte mejor

El oido hizo posible la comunicacion oral. Hace 380 millones de años, cuando nuestros antepasados se convirtieron en terrstres, unos huesos que formaban parte de la estructura de las branquias pasaron a formar parte del oido interno (el hueso que une el timpano con la columella.

Para comerte mejor
El gusto y el olfato están ligados a los estímulos químicos. Las moléculas de una sustancia se disuelven activando los receptores del gusto. Su principal uso era detectar los alimentos en buen estado, dulce o salado significaba buen estado y amargo o ácido significaba mal estado.

Para olerte mejor

En los primeros vertebrados terrestres, las celular olfativas se ubicaban en techo de la cavidad nasal. El olfato tiene un impacto importante sobre el gusto, ya que sin el no seriamos capaces de distinguir el gusto como lo hacemos ahora.

ChangApp

En la clase de Política y Ciudadanía nos propusieron diseñar nuestra idea de una aplicación. Antes de empezar con las ideas analizamos entre todos distintas aplicaciones para tomar inspiración. Después en parejas empezamos a diseñar nuestra aplicación inspirándonos en la interfaz, diseño, función, etc de las otras aplicaciones. Finalmente hicimos una presentación para mostrar de que se trata la aplicación.

Categoría: Economía

Público: +16

Objetivo: Ofrecer trabajo  a la gente de una manera sencilla o conseguir trabajo (ej: cortar el pasto, limpiar vidrios, etc).

Características de la Interfaz: La pantalla principal seria un mapa donde aparecerían los trabajos disponibles a tu alrededor.

 Después de cada trabajo el empleador tiene que dar una calificación al usuario en base a su eficiencia y un comentario opcional.

En otra pestaña esta la opción de ofrecer un trabajo, llenando un formulario del trabajo y el dinero  que ofreces, dónde y equipo disponible.

Posible impacto: Las personas sin trabajo que quieren ahorrar un poco de plata (en especial adolescentes) pueden conseguir trabajo rápidamente.

Inspiracion: Familonet nos dio la idea de la interfaz y del mapa.

Attitudes towards old people

Introduction

The aim of this report is to discuss the attitudes young people have towards elder people and the prospect of growing old themselves. Also there are some recommendations for improving these attitudes and make young people realize some things.

Attitudes towards elder people

Young people always had bad attitudes and specially towards older people. They lack of patience which is very important while being with older people, this is because they take their time to do some things or the find it harder to understand the modern world as we know it since they come from another generation.  They need an explanation multiple times to understand and sometimes young people looses their minds trying to explain. That's why people don't like to be with older people, they are not the same as them, in other words they are incompatible.

Prospect of growing old themselves

As I stated before, older and young people are incompatible. Young people can't imagine a life in which they are very limited to do what they like. Many of them see elder people as boring or as people that are excluded from society. Young people want to do what they want, so they see growing as an obstacle.

Recommendations

These attitudes must be changed and improved in order to make elder people comfortable and to reintegrate them into society.

·         Young people should realize that older people need attention by encouraging them to spend time with them

·         Inform about their disabilities and how people can help them

If some attitudes could be changed, older people could be happier and end their final stage properly. 

El termino "evolución" en las publicidades

En biología estuvimos trabajando con el termino "evolución". La profesora nos pidió que busquemos publicidades en las que aparezca este termino y con nuestro conocimiento determinar si esta usado correctamente.


En esta publicidad se dice hay gérmenes que son mas fáciles de combatir, pero hay otros que "evolucionan" y son más difíciles de matar. En realidad los gérmenes no evolucionaron o no se hicieron mas resistentes al jabón, lo que sucedió es que solo sobrevivieron los gérmenes capaces de resistir por lo que al reproducirse sus descendientes tendrían esa misma característica. Por lo tanto cada vez hay mas gérmenes con esa característica que de los que no resisten al jabón. A esto se lo llama "Selección Natural", sobrevive el mas apto.

Improving workplace communication: a proposal

Introduction

The principal aim of this report is to improve workplace communication. That is why firstly everyone should know which are the problems and recommendations in order to solve it.

Current situation

By my own experience and working in the office I came up with the conclusion that the main reason of the lack of communication is the bad work atmosphere there is. People are forced to work from the morning to the night almost without resting. This makes that people get tired and as a consequence everyone is on a bad mood. People do not want to talk to each other and try to ignore everything. So from my point of view, this is a problem we should fix.

Recommendations

The best way to help is by making workers feel comfortable and improve their atmosphere, so here are my recommendations:

·         Implement little breaks during the day in which people can rest their minds and think in other things.

·         Build a room with the only purpose to entertain, add some board games, video games or even pool tables.

·         Make meetings last less or divide them among the day or in different days.

If people feel comfortable, their mood will be better as well as productivity and communication. They need to know that we care about them.

Un viaje especial

En la clase de literatura seguimos con el tema de los viajes, en especial los viajes al espacio. Escuchamos la canción "Space Oddity" de David Bowie, que se trata de un astronauta que se lanza al espacio pero que nunca vuelve porque es "seducido" por la belleza del espacio. El astronauta queda varado en el espacio sin comunicación con la tierra. Después buscamos una canción o un trailer de una película en el que su tema principal sea un viaje. En mi caso elegí la película "Interstellar". Finalmente teníamos que hacer un análisis de cómo aparece el viaje en la película. 

• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Actores: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine y Matt 
• Año: 
• Paramount 
• Warner Bros. 
• Ganador de “Mejores efectos visuales” en los Premios Oscar

El tráiler de “Interestellar” logramos ver algunos elementos que son lejanos a nuestra realidad. Por ejemplo, capsulas de hibernación, viajes interestelares hacia otras galaxias por agujeros de gusano, viajes en el tiempo e interacción entre dimensiones. Además de algunos hechos que asombran, como pueden ser los viajes dentro de un agujero negro o teorías que se intentan representar en la película, como la teoría de la relatividad o la teoría del espacio-tiempo.

El viaje es visto como una esperanza para salvar a la humanidad. La misión es encontrar un planeta habitable, en el cual la humanidad pueda establecer una sociedad, porque la tierra esta “muriendo”. Pero para esto, el personaje principal, interpretado por Matthew McConaughey, debe abandonar todo en la tierra, incluyendo a su hija, Jessica Chastain, la cual no está muy contenta de no volver a ver a su padre.

Cooper hace un viaje a través de un agujero de gusano cerca de Saturno. Este agujero llevaba a otra galaxia en donde había planetas posiblemente habitables. Cada planeta que visitaban, era esperanza que se perdía. Hasta que no quedaban más planetas. La última opción era reproducir a la humanidad en otro planeta ajeno a la Tierra o entrar a un agujero negro para descifrar la ecuación para poder lanzar al espacio una “estación espacial” y vivir ahí. Cooper decide hacer eso, para poder salvar a las personas que quedaban en la tierra, incluyendo a su hija. Sin embargo, después de quedar solo en el espacio, es encontrado cerca de Saturno flotando, lo rescatan y  logra reencontrarse con su hija, la cual envejeció, en la estación espacial. Cooper se da cuenta que él es más joven que su propia hija, que se relaciona con la teoría de la Relatividad. La historia termina con su hija muriendo de vejez y él lanzándose nuevamente al espacio.  

La información genética y su aporte en el estudio de la Evolución

Para estudiar la evolución de las especies, en la clase de Biología, vimos como es que el ADN aporta evidencia de la evolución. Para eso leimos en nuestro libro y miramos un video para entender mas del tema. Despues teniamos que hacer un texto que relacione las palabras:

• Gen 
• ADN 
• Población 
• Proteína 
• Evolución

  

Los humanos tenemos 46 cromosomas en cada célula de nuestro cuerpo, y estos cromosomas están formados por una única molécula de ADN, que a su vez contiene la información genética de cada individuo. Las moléculas de ADN indican a la célula como debe funcionar, o tiene como función fabricar proteínas que tendrán una determinada característica. Es decir que, por ejemplo, dependiendo de que proteínas formen nuestro pelo, tendrá un color o otro. Ya que cada individuo tiene su información genética, podemos observar las secuencia de ADN de una población, poza génica, para determinar cuales son los cambios que se producen a lo largo del tiempo. Por ejemplo, si cambian su color de piel/pelo por una necesidad. Las diferentes variantes para una información genética es denominado alelo. Si los alelos de un gen son iguales, son homocigotas, mientras que si son distintas son heterocigotas. 

No solo eso nos puede servir como evidencia para la evolución, también podemos observar las similitudes que tiene el material genético de una especie con otra. Con eso podríamos ver que, si tienen muchas similitudes, tienen un ancestro en común que tenían esas características y que luego esa especie evoluciono y se "transformo" en distintas especies.

La misión definitiva

En la clase de literatura, luego de leer varias historias en las que aparecían viajes espaciales, la profesora nos dio una consigna para escribir una historia con esa misma característica. La historia tenía que contener un viaje al espacio.

También habíamos estado trabajando con un artículo que hablaba sobre algunas reglas para introducir a un personaje y como seria la manera de hacerlo. Además trabajamos con los tipos de focalización, y había que incluir lo aprendido en nuestra historia.

El proceso de escritura de esta historia fue bastante interesante. Ya que era un trabajo en parejas había que buscar una idea que nos gustase a los dos. Después de un tiempo pensando y tirando ideas, llegamos a la conclusión de hacer esta historia. Fuimos incluyendo cosas que nos gustaban a cada uno.

Elegir el nombre de los personajes fue también de lo más complicado, como también fue complicado como terminaría la historia. Teníamos varias resoluciones, con finales completamente distintos cada uno.

Mientras avanzábamos con la escritura, nos dábamos cuenta que había que cambiar cosas, como los personajes o algunos detalles que considerábamos necesarios o innecesarios.

Con respecto a la consigna, pudimos usar el artículo leído sobre como presentar al personaje, mostramos a los personajes actuando, hablando, describimos su vestimenta y añadimos algunos detalles. La focalización es  externa y fija. La modalidad espacial es panorámica, ya que se relatan los mismos momentos pero desde otros lugares, la temporal es sincrónico porque no hay saltos en el tiempo y el narrador sabe lo mismo que los personajes.

Tips for studying

Dear Agus,

I have received your email, thanks for counting on me. During all these years I have learned some tips for studying in the most efficient way. Here I leave you some of them.

First of all, I recommend you make a summary of all the topics. Underline important events, dates and even names of important people (such as writers, presidents, etc). This will help you to have everything organized. Maybe this will be very difficult at first, but with practice you will do it without even noticing.

When you have that done, continue with this tip. Start doing a mind map to read it easier. However if you feel that you aren’t made for that, you can create cards of important facts and then study each individual card. I strongly recommend that to organize your mind.

Finally I will tell you my most useful tip, in my opinion. At the moment of remembering what you’ve studied, try to explain, try to explain it to someone. The way in which it is to useful is because you simplify the ideas and your mind processes the information. Also, if you don’t have someone to explain it to, talk in front of a mirror.

I hope this email is useful to you and that you use these tips that helped me a lot on my exams.

Good Luck, Fede

How important were credit and hire purchase as reasons for economic growth in the USA in the 1920s?

There is no doubt that during the 1920s the USA was having a very big economic growth. There are many reasons to explain why this happened, but this essay will explore how far were credits and hire purchases important for the economy of the USA.

To start with, the difference between credits and hire purchases is very simple. People could borrow money from banks to make goods more accessible. They were able to take credits which were going to pay back later. On the other hand, hire purchases were a way of paying. People paid a fraction of the total price each month.

One of the most important things during the 1920s was the car industry. People could buy very easily a car because of hire purchases. Unlike Europe, cars were very common in the US society. Cars made it possible for people to move into the suburbs making cities to grow.

During the 1920s, shares were a very easy way of becoming rich. People bought shares, waited until their price rise and then sell them again. Usually they borrowed money which then they paid back with the profits. American banks lent $9 billion for speculating in 1929.

On the other hand we have the reasons that also helped in the economical growth in the 1920s. The Republican Party had some beliefs and policies that helped in the process. The government placed import tariffs to protect the USA industries from foreign competition, consequently the home market grew up. Furthermore, they thought that if people kept their money, they would buy goods instead of saving it, so they kept taxes very low.

Another way of making people buy, was by using advertisements. They encouraged people to buy even if they did not have the money they could borrow it. Moreover, industries had more methods to make goods cheaper, such as production lines. They used this method to speed up the production and make products more accessible.

As regards the US industry, we can say that it grew up after the First World War. Since the war did not drain the resources as it did with Europe, they bought to American companies, such as the chemical industries that outstripped Germany in the supply of it.

As a conclusion we can say that the US economy grew up because of all these reasons, among them credits and hire purchases, which were very helpful for poorer families. Although it was not the most important.

How important were Republican reactions to the Wall Street Crash as causes of Roosevelt's success in the presidential election of 1932?

In 1932, the presidential elections in the USA were taking place. Hoover and Roosevelt were the two main candidates, Hoover representing the Republican Party and Roosevelt the Democratic Party. The winner of the elections was Roosevelt. However, what are the causes of his success?

To start with, the Republican Party had their own policies which had a big consequence in the future. First, they believed that the government shouldn't interfere in the life of people, this was called 'laissez-faire'. Secondly, Republicans placed import tariffs to protect their industries from foreign competition and allowing American industries to grow. Finally they kept taxation low, since they thought that if people kept their money, they would buy American goods. In 1932, Hoover paid the price for being unable t solve the problems of the depression. In 1930 and 1931, he tried to restart the economy by tax cuts, he stopped some banks on going bankrupt and he tried to protect the US industries by introducing tariffs, however this made things worse. By this point, the reputation of Hoover was very damaged. Republicans did not interfere much on the economic prices by saying that it was not a major problem.

On the other hand we have Roosevelt, he believed in an 'active government', he planned to put people back to work, among other characteristics that he had. The campaign was a very important factor for the success in the elections. He made a tour through the USA weeks before the elections, he realized that people wanted action and he promised a 'New Deal'. Finally Roosevelt won by 7 million vote and democrats won a majority of seats in Congress.

To conclude, we can say that the main reason of Roosevelt's success in the 1932's presidential elections was that his main opponent, Hoover, had a very damaged reputation because of the lack of the Wall Street Crash in 1929, the lack of confidence he had and that Americans wanted a change.

Gases Contaminantes

Fitness and Health

With the passing of time, people have a less healthy life. They eat unhealthy, for example hamburgers, which are bad for their lives. People do less exercise and they stay at home watching Netflix or playing with the computers. So people must be aware of the exercise they do and what they eat.

People should know that they need to have a healthy life. So there should be advertisements to make people aware of these problems. Advertisements should help to reach many people and explain the advantages of having a healthier life. However, creating advertisements is very expensive, and as it is not going to have any economical income, no one would want to invest on that.

Another solution that would be cheaper is education. If schools helped and taught to children about exercise often and having a healthier diet, children may implement it all their lives. Children should know what they have to eat in order to be healthier. Unlike advertisements, this method is slower and people that are no longer in school are not going to be benefited.

As a conclusion, we can say that if the two solutions are implemented, people should start to change their style of life. Furthermore, in the long term, education might be the best option since children will get used to another style of life.

Private Cars

Every day thousands of people use their cars to go to work, college, etc. However many of them aren’t aware of the problems that cars may cause. This essay will talk about ways to discourage the use of private cars.

People use cars because they think it is the most comfortable way to move around the city. On the one hand they are right public transport should be improved by the government to make it faster and more comfortable. But on the other hand, cars may cause more pollution than other ways of transport. It can be said that in main cities, buses have their own lane so as to make it faster, but in other cities this isn’t the case. However, the government might have other ideas in which invest that money, that is to say that they have other priorities.

Another way to discourage the use of cars, is teaching people before they start using cars, that is to say in schools. If students are taught the consequences of using cars and the effects on their future life, maybe they become aware of the alternatives to cars. However, as always, there will be some students that won’t be conscious about the problems.

To conclude, if the government decides to make a change, eventually people will stop using private cars.