Is Russia and U.S. taking the matter further away?

This article written by Ernesto Lodoño in the Washington Post reflects very objectively the problem between Russia and the U.S. The problem is bigger than everyone thinks, and the solutions the U.S. is taking may concern the relationship between this two giants in the actual world.

As the article says, Obama has called the actual president of Russia, Vladimir Putin to get some troops out of Ukraine. Literaly, president Obama has said ''to avoid further provocations, including the buildup of forces on its border with Ukraine'', which seems to be like an order to president Putin. The presidents had agreed to send each one a representant of the country to search a diplomatic solution to the problem. In my opinion Russia is looking more for a diplomatic solution than the U.S., as president Putin called last Friday to president Obama with the objective to convince him that Russia want a diplomatic solution, as he literaly said “diplomatic resolution” to the crisis in Ukraine.

Personally, this article is very good but we can see that the writer is in the American side because he puts Russia in the centre of the problem, letting us know that they were the country to begin the problem and the one that is increasing the number of troops in the borders. 

I have chosen this article because this problem concerns all the world and I think things are more delicate in this problem than they let us know.

California farmers short of labour, and patience

Would you belive it if I tell you that some longlife republicans in the USA are beeing harmed because of Inmigration laws? Well, you should. This situation is happening in these days in California. Farmers need inmigration to keep alive so they can hire workers for their farms.

Inmigration laws are preventing California farmers from being a "reliable work force ". The problem is that farmers need more workers to work in their crops.  Americans do not want these jobs, and inmigration laws are keeping workers out, the opposite of the farmer needs. In California almost every farmworker is an inmigrant, and a great part of them are illegal ones; this helps to understand the willingness of republican farmers of changing the conception of inmigration laws in their party.

The issue has led to the Western Growers Association to announce many of his members will withhold economic sustain to the Republican party in next political campaings because of the party's denial of changing inmigration laws just to sustain farmworkers. Also, though most of the people that farmers hire are staying in the country illegaly, they accept any documents even if they are forge. They need people to make their business look ahead, no matter what it takes.

I've chosen this article because the way farmers need inmigrant work to keep their business alive really surprised me and encouraged me look for the reasons. It also seemed a little shocking for me when I read that republicans were concerned about inmigration laws not leaving workers come to California.

NY TIMES ARTICLE

Air pollution causes 7 million deaths in a year, report finds

 What would you think if i tell you that the leading cause of preventable death in the world is not smoking or obesity? That's the truth, the leading cause in preventable death is pollution, that's what this article published by The independent contains.

The article tells us that air pollution caused the death of seven million persons in 2012, it was the cause of one in eight global deaths which confirmed it as the biggest environmental health risk. Constant exposure to pollution lead to strokes, hearth diseases, cancer and respiratory illness . Risks are higher in big cities, in these ones pollution is as dangerous indoors as outdoors.

It should be said that poorest areas are more affected by air pollution because of two factors, the first one is that they often use wood and coal to warm up, the second factor is that they usually live near factory’s which are constantly polluting the environment.

A reduction of polluting emissions has been attempted. Despite countries as Britain have failed in fulfilling their air targets, other countries as Russia say that they have improved considerably the air quality

I have chosen this article because I think everyone should be concerned about the environment issue, it's about our future.

Article:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-causes-7-million-deaths-in-a-year-report-finds-9223393.html?origin=internalSearch

Books are losing the war for our attention. Here’s how they could fight back.

Tecnology is changing our lives in all aspects, including the experiece of reading.
The number of non-book readers has increase. Everyone is now a days reciving e-mails and text mesages that make our smartphones chirp or vibrate, and looking to their social networks accounts, but, what happen with books? They just stay silently on shelves, and we are forgeting them when they have contained human knowledge for generations.

Trying to find the way to make people read again, the fact of linking videos, photos or graphics to the stories has been considered, but how can you do that with, for example, Shakespear?; so they had invented Spritz.

Spritz it's an app which makes reading easier. Words flash rapidly, which makes you hold your attention in whats you are reading. It also helps you to read faster because, when you read a normal book, your brain has to think where to focus you eyes so you are able to read the words; with this app, that time you were waisting doing that, you use it to read because words always flashes in the same place, so your eyes doesn't have to move at all. This helps you to read 320 words per minute aproximately, when with the normal lecture you read 230 word per minut aproximately. Many people has already been registered to this app.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/19/books-are-losing-the-war-for-our-attention-heres-how-they-could-fight-back/

Is Hollywood benefiting from religion... again?

A half century ago, Hollywood had the idea of releasing the movie Quo Vadis, in 1951. Since that year, as the producers saw it was very succesful, cinemas were boomed with biblical movies, some of which were very profitable. Films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Sodom and Gomorrah (1962)...
But when we thought that time was over, the film industry announced a lot of religious movies for 2014, again. Noah, Exodus, or even a true story called Heaven is for Real are titles ready for hitting the big screen this year.
What analysts think of this is that religious stories can be a box-office wild card. For example, for Noah, they spent a serious amount of money: $125 million.
"In recent months, Noah has generated a lot of controversy for deviating from the Old Testament story upon which it's based," says Ray Subers of Box Office Mojo. "Controversy drives conversation, which in turn creates awareness." He says a $40 million debut wouldn't be surprising.
Nor should Hollywood's creative license with biblical stories shock viewers.

So the question we must propose is wether all of this is moral or not. What Hollywood does is exploting the image of the Bible in order to earn money. Of course, I'm not trying to say that it tries to make us believe in the Bible. Darren Aronfronski, director of Noah, is jewish, for example.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2014/03/25/hollywood-biblical-stories/6544643/

Liquid nicotine: selling poison by the barrel

Regardless of health, only money. This is what the article on the effects and health problems with nicotine, in general terms, suggests. A dangerous new form of a powerful stimulant is hitting markets across the world, for sale by the vial, the litre, and even the barrel.

Apparently, several studies and various health problems have come to light due to the use of liquid nicotine, used in e-cigarettes used by people to stop smoking tobacco. Rather than eradicate the problem, it is creating many others, both in children and in adults due to its chemical components and its capacity of absorption into the skin.

Although the  e-cigarettes, e-liquids are not regulated by US federal authorities, they are mixed on factory floors and in the back rooms of shops, and sold legally in stores and online in small bottles that are kept around the house for regular refilling of e-cigarettes.

Toxicologists warn that e-liquids represent a significant risk to human health; children, who may be attracted to its bright colors and fragrant scents and approach with the intention to try it without knowing that that can cause its death. It has been an increase on calls to toxicological centers due to the increase of sales, because not all the security measures necessary were made and said to the consumer.

Despite this, is trying to control sales and the concentrations at which this substance is sold, creating rules and regulations for the sale of the same. As it is said on the article by one professor at the University of California, who specialises in nicotine research, without proper precautions, like wearing gloves while mixing e-liquids, these products "represents a serious workplace hazard, and not only that, but danger to the consumer population.

All in all, whatever we consume has to be clear about the precautions that we have to take, or in this case what amount of liquid nicotine should be given to the electronic cigarette. It should be very clear the safety standards and be carried out rigorously. Quite simple, this article wants us to warn of what we can find and give us details of what has happened with the wrong use of a serious and dangerous substance.

I have chosen this article because i think that it is a very current topic due to laws against tobacco and the concern of the people towards their health and quitting smoking. Besides that I interne medical topic, I had never read about the harmful effects that electric cigarettes could have when it is assumed that it should produce only good effects.

LIQUID NICOTINE ARTICLE - www.theage.com.au

Laura Prieto - 1 Bach B

DO WE REALISE THAT WE ARE LIVING IN THE 

21ST CENTURY?

Things that SHOULD NOT be happening right now, in the 21st century, are still going on and we need to stop this as soon as possible.

What do you think that could happen if a young lady walked passed you wearing this type of clothes? :

Do you think anyone would start shouting at her? Criticizing her? Well, a coherent answer to all of these questions is a NO. Nothing should happen, no one should bother if she is wearing one thing or another. But this is not happening all around the world, while some of us see this as a normal way of dressing, in other countries this is not well seen. 

The newspaper The Independent has published an article that shows the little freedom that individuals have in some countries of the world. A young lady was making her way through university (Cairo university) apparently dressed in an improper manner; the girl was wearing a pink top and tight black trousers. Everyone that was around her thought that this was a lack of respect so they (being really respectful) started whistling and shouting at her. But the story does not end up here, university guards are seen in the clip, which has gone viral on social media, escorting her off the premises after she hid in a toilet to escape the group, who were allegedly trying to remove her clothes.

Mariam Kirollos, a women's rights activist, said that ''this people should be interrogated and expelled" and that "investigations into the incident should start immediately". This matter has been taken further to try to end up with this differences.

Link: The Independent

Robyn Urback: When did education get so stupid?

Kamryn´s, an 11 years old girl from Grand Junction, Colo, decided to shave her head as an act of support for her best friend, who had to take chemotherapy because of cancer. This is a memorable decision which clearly shows her affect to her best friend by putting herself in the same situation. However, in spite of encouraging her friend to carry forward, the school has banned her, and unless she wears a wig or her hair grows back she can´t get back to classes.

The reason of this incredible reaction of school is the school´s dress code. Kamryn has violated it because the school has perceived her act as distracting, as it brakes the environment of uniformity and safety that it is supposed to have. Under this policy, shaved heads are not allowed, but is it only a simple shaved head?

The girl´s mothers don't perceive this act as the school does, and their reaction impressed them so much that they decided to take the issue to social media. Once taken the issue to higher levels, the school seemed to realize about their fault, and welcomed Kamryn back to class, even without hair.

The article opens debate about the importance of following rules. Obviously they are made not to be broken, it is important to set limits in order to keep things in line. But the point is if they must be followed with no exception or not.

This article shows how important are rules, but also how important is to value the subject before taking measures. There are more cases apart from this one in which punishments have been taken without considering the further aim of braking rules, the aim that shows that rules can have exceptions. Schools end up focusing so narrowly on their own rulebooks that they ignore the bigger picture. But where’s the education in that?

Link: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/03/25/robyn-urback-when-did-education-get-so-stupid/

Working in Gibraltar, living in Spain

The article relates the experiences of an Irish citizen that has always had a special feeling for visiting Latin America (therefore he learns Spanish), although his professional experience in Venezuela does not flourish because of the worldwide crisis. He is forced to return to Europe, finding a job in Gibraltar. Among the different options that the main character has to select from, he chooses one which, in his opinion, offers the best of both worlds: working in Gibraltar and living in Spain.

As a result, he lives various conflicts between the Spanish and Gibraltar authorities, whose stressful moment came last summer when police checks were causing delays of several hours to enter and leave the Rock (as well as a fee of 50 euros was charged to anyone crossing the border). The main character says that these measures were justified by the Spanish authorities because of the increasing smuggling between Gibraltar and Spain, claiming that this is a problem that everyone knows and has always existed.

The author thinks that behind these measures there is the confrontation over the sovereignty of the Rock and the growing strength of the Gibraltar economy. Of course these, in my opinion, are the reasons behind the clashes over the rock (economic, political, etc.), to which I add that Gibraltar is one of the ‘favourite’ government topics in order to distract the public scrutiny (if the economy is bad, we speak about Gibraltar, if there is corruption, we talk about abortion…)

The article gives a different perspective of a traditional problem that stems from the British property of the Rock that every so revives causing a wave of diplomatic conflicts between the two countries. In my opinion, both countries, through honest negotiation, should solve this historical problem, but like everything that should solve the current political class, will last for several more centuries, while there is no real will to solve it.

For more information: http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/generationemigration/2013/11/25/working-in-gibraltar-living-in-spain/

Europeans have ‘got whiter’ due to natural selection in past 5,000 years, scientists say

Experts have found a few changes in European DNA due to natural selection. These changes have made skin’s European humans to become much ‘whiter’ through the last 5,000 years. Recently, there has been a research based on the comparison of ancient and current DNA. The study has shown a genetic distinction between our ancestors and us. This difference, due to its relation with hair, eye pigmentation and skin, has caused the descendants to be ‘whiter’.

The results were not the ones scientists expected as in theory darker phenotype has always had preference over whiter phenotype. The surprising result has lead to several explanations.

Mark Thomas UCL’S professor has said that this change over the past thousand years could have been a natural adaptation to reduction in the amount of sunlight received in northern latitudes.

Sandra Wilde, the lead report author from Mainz’s Johannes Gutenberg University, gives us another possible explanation. This explanation could be related to group affiliation, as the change on the hair and eye colour might have an important role in the selection of a partner.

However, there is a last explanation that says that this result could be connected to a specific timeframe. While archeologists are trying to find the exact point when this distinction in our genome happened, researches discuss about what could have provoked this change. The final conclusion that they reached is that all this may be caused by positive selection.

I have chosen this article because the title appealed to me so much. I still continuo without understanding why natural selection had chose whiter phenotype, as being whiter makes us more vulnerable to ray of sunlight. Experts have concluded that this lighter skin is due to the reduced level of sunlight in northern areas. However, climate change is producing an increase of temperatures and also an increase in the amount of sunlight received, so I think that there would be another timeframe where the darker phenotype would take preference again.

Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/europeans-have-got-whiter-due-to-natural-selection-in-past-5000-years-scientists-say-9187632.html

The Ney York Yimes- Radar Blips Baffle Officials in Malaysian Jet Inquiry

Radar Blips Baffle Officials in Malaysian Jet Inquiry

Malaysian authorities have detected on Wednesday signals that could match with those from the aircraft who is missing since March 8, 2014. Signals are really low and they have failed in reading the data for four days even as they struggled to interpret it.

This data has been given to American investigators who would assist in helping to determine the exact origine of the radar blips, and decide if the signals are likely to be those from Boeing 777, Malaysia
Airlines Flight 370. The defense country´s minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, told reporters they aren´t sure that it is the same aircraft, and would continue to research in two areas like they have been doing during the last days. Meanwhile this , families keep waiting for information about their relatives location. Malaysian officials had said to have evidence that the plan might have attempted to return, but it was not until Wednesday when they detailed the military radar recording. A local newspaper article on Tuesday reported that the Malaysian air force were working on the data, but the air force had described the piece of news as “misreporting.”

The reason why I have chosen this article is the fact that the aircraft has not been found since the accident, 4 days ago. All that is related with the Malaysia Airlines flight 370 seems to be uncertain and mysterious, and the information coming from the investigation committee does not help to reach to a plausible hypothesis. I think that the Malaysian authorities should keep working until the end of the matter, and give at least a clear explanation to all the relatives of the passengers traveling in this unlucky flight.

Livr Social App

Livr: A social network only for drunk people

The Independent, TUESDAY 11 MARCH 2014.

A new social network app has been created, but this app has some special characteristics, it’s only for drunk people. Kyle Addison and Avery Platz, have created an app where drunk people can do everything they did before but with other drunk people.

 It works thanks to a mini-breathalyzer that plugs into your Smartphone and it only allows people to go in when they are above a determined level of alcohol in blood. Once you pass that barrier you will find many features designed for people who have had a few drinks. These features are from playing truth or dare, where people win points for completing challenges from other users, to a Drunk dial, which puts in contact random users so they can communicate with each other.

In case people do something they didn’t want to do, the app incorporated a ``Black out´´ button which erases everything you have done that day. This button allows people to enjoy the night and as the creator says, ``go nuts´´ because if you realize in the morning that you did something you didn’t want to do you can just press the button and everything will be forgotten.

What really does make Livr shine on my opinion is that you can do whatever you want that night that no one is going to know thanks to the ``Black Out´´ button. Nowadays everything you make public on a social network is public for everyone and forever and that could be harmful if you are trying to look for a job or trying to go for politics because anyone could get that posts that you made public a long time ago and use them against you.  

I chose this article since when I read the title of the article it shocked me a lot and It sounded very interesting. I think this app could be revolutionary and very popular amongst the teenagers and young adults since we all like to party, to meet new people and to have fun and I think this app combines everything. 

This article comes from:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/livr-a-social-network-only-for-drunk-people-9176791.html

Web page of the app:

http://livr-app.com/

Video of the app:

http://vimeo.com/88209254

Why you should be proud to sleep on the job (The Washington Post)

Why you should be proud to sleep on the job

Winston Churchill was a British politician and a recognised wartime leader of the 20th century. He was also a well-known historian, a writer, and an artist. The most interesting thing about him thought doesn’t have to do with all these things he did, but how he did them. He was known for taking naps from time to time at work to renew vital forces. He was capable of sleeping 20 minutes or more even when the country he led was being bombed. Therefore if Churchill, who beated Hitler during the Second World War, could disconnect taking afternoon siestas so can we.

Besides the list of people who did this doesn’t end here, some of the best minds in history such as Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon or Albert Einstein napped too. Even Salvador Dali used siestas to get ready to work as sleep leads to a roughly 40% boost in creativity.

Anyhow, this is not a myth, research has shown that naps refresh our body, make us more attentive and improve our moods. On top of all a study found that people who took naps where less likely to die of heart disease as sleep lowers down blood pressure. If we think about it, it makes sense as the majority of mammals sleep in short periods throughout the day.

Nowadays we can see that the use of these siestas is increasing. There are some countries that have overcome nap shame, in some places like Japan when they see someone napping they think they are getting ready to put 100% in during the afternoon. What’s more, there are companies, such as Nike and Google, that offer places for their employees to take a rest.

I have chosen this article because the title got my eye. These days there are a lot of studies that are being carried out on this subject and there are being a lot of discoveries related to the lack of sleep. I think this article is interesting as in the society we live in we don’t give sleep the importance we should.

Link to article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/03/05/why-you-should-be-proud-to-sleep-on-the-job/

Pesticide blamed for deaths of hundreds of wild birds

Pesticide blamed for deaths of hundreds of wild birds

In the last month,  Dubbo, which is an area located in the central west part of Australia, unless 700 birds have been found dead. Some experts have analysed some samples of the death birds and the test indicates fenthion that is a chemical used to control insects, spiders and non-native pest birds.

There are no evidences about how the could be infected and this is a really important problem because in this way lots of birds could die. This is why inhabitants who lived in Australia and specially inhabitants near the area where the birds were found helped to collect the bodies in order that no other bird or animal eat the poisoned carrion. In addition, the water of the river nearby, the Macquarie River, have been also analysed and the results indicate that it is not infected, this relief the problem of other animals. The government is taking measures to stop the problem, moreover the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority carried out a suspension of the use of this chemical for some agricultural products.

I have chosed this article because I think that it is a very important issue and a really big problem that is causing the death of lots of birds and this contribute to the lost of biodiversity, and may be the species that have died are not very popular but they have a great importance on the habitat where they live. In my opinion, a solution for this problem should be found and soon as possible because it is not necessary caused the death of some species to make a plague disappear and we can find other solutions for the plagues.

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/pesticide-blamed-for-deaths-of-hundreds-of-wild-birds-20140311-34jbx.html

Man v Robot: Table tennis champion Timo Boll takes on Kuka robotic arm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/man-v-robot-table-tennis-champion-timo-boll-takes-on-kuka-robotic-arm-9184738.html

It is a project developed by the KUKA company in which they face a machine they designed to play Table tennis against Timo Boll, the world champion. Nowadays technology is advancing really quickly and AI (artificial intelligence) is now at the level in which you cannot distinguish between a human and a computer. 

A new machine called KR 6 R900 SIXX has been created to beat the table tennis world champion Timo Boll. Even though this machine is incredibly sophisticated Timo Boll was capable of winning a match against it. Why is this?. He says that the robot can't cope with some techniques leveled players use, like net calls. However he admits this machine is incredibly good.

The match ended 9-11 winning the world champion but he admits that was a hard match. The video shows how Timo Boll realizes that he is playing against a machine that doesn't behave as any other player he faced before.

This match between human against machine shows us that machines are just programs that do what they are told to do and that they will never response as if they were a human being. However would it be a time in which machines will behave as humans? Then, will we be able to distinguish if we are playing, talking... with a machine? What is already shown is that technology is not yet enough prepared.

VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIIJME8-au8

Britain ignored genocide threat in Rwanda (Lucía Hernández)

Britain ignored genocide threat in Rwanda
Documents declassified 20 years on show the UK and US were warned of a 'new bloodbath'

The Genocide in Rwanda was the attempt to exterminate of the Tutsi population by the Hutu. In the genocide 800,000 Rwandans were killed. Some political leaders have expressed their regret at an international failure to stop violence.

The USA president at the time, Bill Clinton, has admitted that if they had intervened earlier to stop the killing, 300,000 lives could have been saved.

In the 20th anniversary of the genocide, some declassified diplomatic documents were released by the National Security Archive which showed that the US, Britain and the United Nations were warned about the situation in Rwanda.

The diplomatic messages showed that on 25 February 1994, the Belgian foreign ministry had expressed "alarm" at the situation in Rwanda. Lode Willems (Belgian ministry's chief of staff)  wrote to Paul Noterdaeme, (the country's ambassador to the UN) describing Rwanda's "significant deterioration" and asking for greater UN powers to act.

Both the US and UK were opposed to action. The UN was against intervention in the Belgian colony.In May, UN members agreed to send troops of 5,000 people, but they were not sent for another six months and by that time the killing had already stopped.

While John Major defended his decision not to send troops to Rwanda ,he said that it was "simply not practicable" for the UN Security Council to become the "policeman of every part of the world" , Mr Clinton was apologetic on a visit to the country in 1998 when he said "We did not act quickly enough after the killing began."

This new has called my attention because I think that both US and UK had a shameful behavior regarding to the genocide, and It shocks me how they knowing what was going on in Rwanda they did not intervented. I find very interesting these subjects because I have seen many documentaries and some movies like “Hotel Rwanda” that shows in a very explicit way what happened in the genocide and I think everybody should know about this so hopefully this won't happen again.