TRIP TO LONDON

Camden market

Our third day was spent in Camden. We took the bus at the beginning of a long road. As we progressed, the environment was becoming more urban. We arrived at our stop and when I came down, I hallucinated. I found an environment completely original, with a huge variety of styles and picturesque.

The three hours that teachers left us to see the place didn't be enough. I spent three hours going around and around and discovering new things about the neighbourhood. I bought two super nice things in two super original shops.

At lunchtime, we went to an outdoor enclosure filled with market stalls of different food and different nationalities. I love to eat and this was the perfect place for me: we ate a lovely Turkish crepe. At the end of the journey, I was sad to leave because I knew it would take long to return to that place; but on the other hand I was happy because we were going to see the play of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

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NEWS

Why navigation apps have a gender issue

The company Waze uses a marketing strategy which sell different famous voices like Morgan Freeman one to their users. The variety of voices to choose is large but it is surprising that there is no woman's voice. 

“The most important characteristic is a unique voice and brand, regardless of gender,” says Waze’s head of brand and global marketing, Julie Mossler, when pressed about the lack of female celebrity voice upgrades. In contrast, he specified that the decision to buy only male voices rests with the client. 

“A female's voice is more calming,” says Jessi Combs, professional race-car driver and television personality. She may be right. At first, all navigation systems tend to have a female voice, including Waze. Another example is Apple's Siri narrated by Susan Bennett. According to Bennett, the female voices tend to be softer and therefore more pleasant to listen to. 

The data shows that both men and women with lower pitched voices are perceived as stronger and more dominant, as leaders, someone who should be listened to. Moreover, this kind of voices inspire confidence and not only authority. In countries like France or UK, maybe because the culture and the sexism, Siri's debut voice was male by default.

Vocabulary

• Pitched

Personal Opinion

Firstly, the problem is not in that between the male voice or female voice, but there should be no distinction between them. By this I mean that, for example, if we are driving and GPS voice is male, we should not ask ourselves "Why is a male and not a female?" and vice versa. We must eliminate these automatic thoughts and so there will be gender equality.

NEWS

Why does Britain have such bizarre place names?

    The village of Pity Me outside Durham. 



All those names of Britain towns have a history hidden. Celtic tribes that arrived during the Iron Age, which started around 800BC, were the first to give a clear linguistic contribution that has lasted to modern times. They came in groups from the continent; some spoke Goidelic (the source of Gaelic), while the others spoke Brittonic.
Nowadays, many of the rivers and hills that which are in Britain are original of the Celts like Avon, Derwent, Severn, Tees, Trent, Tyne... It is also possible that some of these names could may originate before the Celts. The River Tame, comes from the Celtic for ‘dark one’ or ‘river’ as does the River Thames.

Thanks to the Anglo-Saxons, Celtic influence did not arrived to the south and east as much as arrived to north and west. For example, Much Wenlock: it gets its Much is from Anglo-Saxon mycel, meaning ‘great’ or ‘much’. Wenlock comes from Celtic wininicas, ‘white area’, and the Anglo-Saxon loca, ‘place’.

The Romans invaded Britain too, even before the Anglo-Saxons. But they failed to influence the culture. A different part of Roman buildings, the most outstanding  comes from the Latin castra (‘fort’). Taken into Anglo-Saxon, it became ceaster (‘town, city’, pronounced rather like ‘che-aster’) – which has mutated to chester (Chester, Manchester), caster (Lancaster, Doncaster) and cester (Leicester, Cirencester). As these there are many more examples.

Vocabulary

• Hills

NEWS

Is fermented food a recipe for good gut health?

This article talks about the positive points of fermented food. Fermentation is used to a method to preserve food since thousands of years, and the bacteria in it are beneficial to our health. Kimichi (a korean dish) is made by fermentation: cabbage is soaked in salt water to kill off any. Then the Lactobacillus convert sugars and carbohydrate into lactic acid and that gives a tangy flavour to the dish. This TYPE of bacteria is advantageous to our health because it takes out harmfull bacteria, it contributes positively to our digestion, restore the balance of our immune system and help the body to work at its best. These good bacteria are called probiotics.

The main question is, are there enough of them in fermented food to make a difference? Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King's College London and author of The Diet Myth, says that this is a difficult point to answer. Probiotics are in fermented food which has not dairy. Not all fermented food is beneficial to health, since wine or beer is fermented and are not equally beneficial than others. 

On the other hand, probiotics are not completely tested and are still under investigation: it has been suggested there could be benefits for those with irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory diseases of the intestines. They may also improve allergies in babies and the health of people with weak immune systems. The key is to eat varied and never in excess.

Vocabulary

• Cabbage
• Soak
• Irritable bowel syndrome

Personal Opinion

Fermented food has a lot of beneficial items that can be used in benefit to different intestinal diseases or problems. One thing I've noticed is that many common things in our diet are fermented, but we take it for granted and do not pay attention to this fact.

NEWS

Syrian refugees have become a worldwide problem. The images shown daily on the television news show a very harsh reality on the Greek border. This issue causes me much grief and for this reason I wanted to choose a story about this.

The children who just want to go home

The war in Syria has claimed not only fatalities but victims alive with physical and psychological effects. Most of these are children. The writer talks about her meeting with Ibrahim, a Syrian child aged 12 who lives in an abandoned building in Jordania.

The children his leg in an aerial bombardment. He was the one who was luckier: his mother, two sisters and three brothers, also his uncle and three cousins died. He explained to the writer that he and his father were witting to go to Canada for asylum, but what he wanted was to return home and be a war reporter, because the outside world does not know what was happening in his country. 

Syrian adults fleeing from the war of their country but kids always want to go home. Rouaa, a five-year-old child, said that she will go home the following day if she could. Rouaa's little brother was briefly in hospital. Their home now is a refugee’s camp on Mount Lebanon. Her parents and five children lives one small tent. 

The writer also met a young boy who lost both legs, an eye and one of his hands in a landmine explosion. The following day he had prosthetic legs fitted and he did not stop to walk during the day.

Another victim of war was Mustafa, who also had to learn to walk again after a barrel bomb hit his family house on the outskirts of Aleppo. Both of his parents were killed and he spent a year in hospital. He had the hip damaged and he needs a replacement of it. But, unfortunately, Medecins Sans Frontieres have not the necessary resources to do that. When he arrived at the hospital, he couldn't stand, he was malnourished and so traumatised he couldn't eat. He'd scream whenever he saw anyone in a white coat. He left on his own two feet, a different boy. After a year, he was recovered but not entirely of his broken hip and he demonstrated his courage i strength with only 5 years old.

Vocabulary

• Fleeing
• Hip
• Fatalities

Personal Opinion

I find it shameful that the EU can remedy this major problem and stay out just because these people are not part of Europe. If Human Rights exist to preserve the dignity and welfare of any human, then if they ignore the Syrians is because the EU does not consider them as such. It is disgusting the selfish behaviour that shows both EU and other powers by failing to cooperate in this major global problem.

NEWS

Mars mission targets Monday launch

This new written by Jonathan Amos explains the launch of Europe's mission to Mars.

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is set to launch a Proton rocket on Monday 14th. The purpose of the satellite is to control the atmosphere and detect anomalies. They have also been proposed Investigate and know the methane, which could contain microbial life. "All the preparation milestones have been achieved as per the nominal schedule," Walter Cugno from the lead European contractor, Thales Alenia Space, told BBC News.

In addition, it will take 10 hours to get to the end point. The time of stay on Mars is 3 months. Then, three days out from arrival, it will land on Mars. Its aim is to test some instruments and Engineers see as the ship lands. They will use the Schiaparelli method to land. "This technology development is very important," said Esa's director of science, Prof Alvaro Gimenez. This method has all kinds of technology. 

After landing, the TGO will spend traveling around the planet 400 km radius for one year. With this it will get a detailed report of air gas on Mars such as methane, water vapour, nitrogen dioxide, and sulphur dioxide... But methane is the main focus. Most of the methane in Earth's atmosphere comes from living organisms, and it is not a ludicrous suggestion that microbes might also be driving emissions on Mars.

Vocabulary

• Schedule

Personal Opinion

It is beneficial technology will be used to important issues like this one. Looking for life out of Earth is important to our culture and it enriches our humanity because technology has to be used to make a better world.

Task

Research paper abstract

Key words: forensic medicine, forensic Medicine, legal proceedings, Narcís Bardalet, Anna Hospital.

My project is focused on how forensic and odontology medicine can work together on a great disaster such as Thailand tsunami or Germanwings crash. Anna Hospital and Narcís Bardalet have contributed to this project with their testimony from the interviews I've done them firsthand. In my research I have investigated in forensic medicine and forensic dentistry, but I get into the legal world that surrounds cases of violent death. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

My Say

Primark
When I went to Primark,  what impressed me was the low price of the clothes and that there was so much of it. Besides the store I was in Oxford Street. So I thought , what is Primark trading strategy to get enough profit to have a huge store on Oxford street and sell clothes so cheap?

When I arrived to Spain I did a little research about Primark and I found out that Primark occupationally exploited illegal immigrants taking advantage of their situation of despair. Why nobody has end this secret? If I know it just searching in Google for 5 minutes, I can not imagine what will know the biggest diligent of the world.

Looking for information, I found a picture of a dress from Primark , whose label carried a hidden message. In it was written a message from a worker or, rather, a slave of Primark.

   "Forced to work exausting hours"

This woman bought a dress in Primark and she realised that the label carried a message hand sewn denouncing labor exploitation. This is a fact that has to help to 

This is a fact that should help to make consumers to know where the chlothes they buy are from  and at the expense of who takes advantage Primark; at the expense of thousands of people in dramatic situations.

Podcast

Podcast about love questions


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Task

Oral Presentation

During my presentation I became very nervous and I started to make mistakes with words and I finally go blank. My mistake was that I was very sure of myself and of my subject in the research project; I did not prepared it enough and in the result is reflected. I have not watched the video because at the time I was aware that I did it very badly and I am ashamed. This will help me to improve face the future:)

My Say

The Kardashians

The Kardashian are a rich and a very famous family all over the world. Their fame mainly rests with the 5 sisters and the mother, but that stands out is Kim, the older sister.

Each family member is a character itself and I love it; They are great fun and are out of the ordinary. Their hit series "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" is famous all over the world. 

The family is composed of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Robert, Kris (mother), Bruce (the father of the last two) Kendall, and Kyle.

Although the series shows very frivolous and lacking in values aspects, I consider it entertaining. If I keep this reality is because it makes me laugh and not because I take It as an example, and I really think they are empty inside and all that moves them is the ostentation.

My Say

What is the role that sexuality acquire in our society?

Currently, if someone walks through the street naked, he might end up arrested. Currently, if someone from the religious sector sexually abuses a minor, he might end free. Shocking truth?

How a character who must represent goodness, solidarity, honesty allowed himself thus violating the dignity of a child; and at the same time the church cover these cases of abuse; it's incomprehensible. The reaction of the church should be steadfast and exemplary, but in reality is cowardly and permissive with the unforgivable.

Both the criminal act as the reaction of the church seem to me an attack on the foundations of Christianity (and I am not religious). If they preach helping others with their speeches, they preach child abuse by their actions.

However, they consider homosexuality a crime.