Luis blog 2015

Throughout these past ten weeks, I posted essays in my blog regarding different themes. All of these topics are related with our life, therefore I made some analysis. With the use of descriptions, arguments, information, narrations and opinions, I developed these topics. Doing this, I have realized that these are very encompassing topics. My objective was to discuss, reflex, analyze, describe and argue to reach a conclusion about each subject. I enjoyed doing this and I hope it was of your liking.

domingo, 22 de noviembre de 2015

The World

The World: Earth from Above: The Importance of Caring and Keeping our World.

The world and its population has changed throughout history. Every moment, every situation or action changes our world every day. Humans have sought ways to survive in the world and therefore, they have accidentally found the form to pollute and harm it. Some people have dedicated to research, inform and educate the world’s population about the consequences of human action in the environment and how this affects all the nature, including the same human. One of these people is Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer, reporter and environmentalist. In his project ‘‘Earth from Above’’ he emphasizes the importance of caring and keeping our world.

By using pictures of wonders of the world, Yann Arthus- Bertrand exposes the problem of the destruction of our planet, caused by our own action. This project is an exhibition of numerous big posters that has traveled to 150 cities around the world and has been was visited by 120 million people from 2000 until 2015. It is also a documentary series where the ecological problems of the world are analyzed. Both projects reveal the damage that has been caused to the water, the forests, the animals, and the natural resources of the world produced mainly by human action. It also explains how this affects adversely the nature and therefore, humanity.

I had the opportunity to see and appreciate this exhibition when it was brought to Puerto Rico in 2009. When I saw the wonders of the world through these posters, I realized that it is very important to maintain our planet. Each poster had a stunning and impressive fact about humanity, the environment and the ecological problems. For example, one of these facts, according to Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is that 1.1 billion people do not have access to drinking water. This is an alarming statistic, considering that the actual environment pollution can increase this number. This and hundreds of others facts make awareness to protect, clean and keep the natural resources and therefore the whole nature.

It is clear that the objective of the author of ‘‘Earth from Above’’ is to bring a strong and alarming massage. It is very important to protect all of the natural resources of the world. It is equally important to protect each living creature. The intention is to keep the environment and our nature in good condition without endangering human survival and before reaching the point of regret for not doing this. This way, we achieve our survival in the only home that we have, the Earth. Finally, I invite you to explore all of these posters and facts because it will really change your thinking about nature, environment, humanity and the whole world.

sábado, 14 de noviembre de 2015

Education

Education: Science Education in The Public School of Puerto Rico

Education is the act or process of educating; or teaching methods and theory. This is very important in the formation of a person, from birth, throughout his professional life until death. Education can be imparted at home and in school. For this reason culture governs education and is it different in each society of the world.

In my case, I have received my education from my parents and twelve years in school plus two and a half years of University, all of this in Puerto Rico. I will emphasize the education in school, specifically the Public School of Puerto Rico, where I received education throughout twelve years of my life. In the Public School of Puerto Rico different subjects are taught, for example Science, History, Spanish, English, Math, Art, Physical Education, etc. But I will be more specific, I will talk about Science education in the Public School of Puerto Rico.

Education in Puerto Rico is administrated by The Department of Education. In the science program, the department establishes some objectives. One of these are that the students develop their learning ability, integrating technology to analysis and master concepts inherent to Science. The education system emphasizes science, technology, engineering, and math. This science program has four principal domains: physical sciences (Physical), life science (Biology), Earth and space science (Geology and Astronomy), and science applications (Technology, Engineering and Chemistry). All of these are the themes that the education system brings to the students in the Public School of Puerto Rico.

My experience in this program was very gratifying and interesting. There, I made some experiments, researches, presentations and other things that fostered in me a particular interest. In school we used technology, creative, critical analysis, observation and investigation to develop skills based on science. Also, teachers fomented knowledge development in me and my classmates to apply science in daily life. This is very important to each student because science is around us in every moment of life.

Today, science study is very important to students and therefore, to society. Each student must be educated for their future and responsibilities. This way a future useful citizen in the world of jobs is created. Scientific and technological knowledge take this person to open new paths in today’s world. The main objective of this is that every student promotes respect to nature and life to contribute positively to society, either individually or collectively.

domingo, 8 de noviembre de 2015

Movies

Movies: Natural Disasters Movies

A movie is a recorded sequence of video images displayed with sufficient rapidity as to create the illusion of motion and continuity. Its development begins in 1824 with the thaumatrope, an optical illusion machine that has a lantern to create the appearance of moving images, since then making movies has evolved to today’s booming technology. In fact, India is the country that produces the most number of movies with around 1,000 movies filmed annually in various languages, followed by Nigeria and the United States. There exist around 27 genres of movies based on adventures, science, history, drama, romance, action, disasters, horror, musical, family, etc. This time, I will focus on the movie genre that revolves around natural disasters or cataclysmic movies.

Recently, we have seen the emergence of hundreds of films based on natural disasters. When we see these movies we worry and ask if it is possible for things like that to happen. In this case, we affirm that is a fiction film. We can establish how fictional or real these types of movies are.

In first instance, we have the natural disasters or cataclysms movies, those that are greatly exaggerated. Movies like 2012 (2009) that shows the end of the world; or the most recent, San Andreas (2015) where the southwest of the United States is devastated by an earthquake and a tsunami, are criticized by scientists and films critics for being exaggerated in the form of showing the magnitude of the earthquakes and tsunamis. Scientists say that this can happen, but not in the form that these movies show it. Other movies like Volcano (1997), where a volcano in the middle of a city destroys everything around; Knowing (2009) where a geomagnetic solar storm burned completely the Earth and Deep Impact (1998) where a comet impacts the Earth and produces a cataclysmic including a mega tsunami; are only some movies with that problem. However, we must understand that movies are really intended to show only a fictional part of the force of nature.

On the other hand, we have seen these natural disaster movies that show that some of them have happened in real life, in some parts of the world. For example, the movie The Impossible (2012) recounts the dramatic moment when a tsunami hit the coast of Thailand in 2004. The same case happened with the movie Pompeii (2014) which was inspired by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. This volcano buried Pompeii, a city of The Roman Empire. Another example can be The Perfect Storm (2000) which tells the story of a fishing ship that was lost at sea after being caught by a hurricane in 1991. The movies Into the Storm (2014) and Twister (1996) approach the reality of what happens each year in the states of the center of United States with tornados. Although, these have not happened yet, movies like The Day After Tomorrow (2004) where a series of extreme weather events usher the globe in a new ice age; Avalanche (1978) where an avalanche destroys everything in its path; and even Poseidon (2006) that depicts a rogue wave turning upside down a cruise, show us examples of what could happen if Global Warming and climate change continue to increase, according to scientifics.

As we can see, the main objective of these movies is to demonstrate what has happened, what can happen and what cannot possibly happen due their great exaggerations of the natural disasters that have made themselves memorable throughout history. While these movies reflect this, others transmit a lot of feelings. Love, happiness, sadness, horror and worry are only some of these feelings that each movie genre can give to people. Also, movies inform, teach, entertain, can give or take way hope and they can make you feel identified with its characters and situations. We know that behind these movies there are a lot of people working in each detail of the films. These groups of people have the labor of entertaining and bringing us all of these explicit or implicit messages in each movie.

domingo, 1 de noviembre de 2015

A Celebrity

A Celebrity: Juan Luis Guerra

The majority of people have a celebrity who they admire. The people admire a celebrity for some reasons such as his physical characteristics, achievements, successes, and his mindset or way of being. A person maybe admires a celebrity based on their own experience, knowledge and feelings. In my case, I admire a singer. This singer is Juan Luis Guerra.

Juan Luis Guerra is a Latin-American songwriter, composer, musician and producer. He was born in Dominican Republic in 1957. His musical career begins in 1983, since this year, Guerra has been composing different genres like ‘‘Merengue’’, tropical, romantic ballads and ‘‘Bachata’’. In his different songs he brings messages of love, faith and social- political-historical criticism. Also, J. L. Guerra has won many awards and has sold over 30 million records. For these reasons, he is one of the most renowned singers of all America.

The Dominican singer is also known for being the first artist of tropical music to achieve the goal of making critics in his music to the political and social life of America. This achievement was thanks to some of his songs. For example, in one of his first songs ‘‘Ojalá que llueva café’’ (1989) did a description and therefore a critical observation to the poverty of the Dominican society of that moment, this brought him international recognition. Another song were he did a political and social critic was ‘‘El costo de la vida’’ (1992) whose video has a message against capitalism. The songs ‘‘Visa para un sueño’’ (1989) and ‘‘El Niagara en bicicleta’’ (1998) also bring a social criticism were he describes how people are affected by a corrupt government. Recently, with the song ‘‘La guagua’’ (2010), he continues making these critics in this case, used an analogy comparing a bus and its passengers with the government and its population. Throughout these and others compositions Guerra protests against bad conditions in the majority of Latin American countries.

For these reasons Juan Luis Guerra is one celebrity that I admire. His capacity to communicate his thinking related to a problem that not everyone treats makes me admire him. Also, the composition of other themes like love and faith in Christian religion make him be one of the best songwriters of his genres. His great career and the publication of many records lead him to stardom. Since 1983 until now, this character has made a huge range of musical themes and I am sure that he will continue with this tendency.

domingo, 25 de octubre de 2015

Media

Media: The Types of Traditional and Digital Medias

Communication is very important for humanity. Throughout history, communication media has evolved to satisfy human comfort. These are instruments by which the communication process is performed. Since the oldest artifact until the most advance, have helped people with their daily lives. To understand this, we can identify the types of traditional and digital medias and their advantages and disadvantages.

The objectives of media are to inform, educate, entertain, persuade and promote. Traditional medias are artifacts used before the apparition of telecommunications. For example, books, newsletters, newspapers and magazines are traditional medias. Some advantages of this type of media are their low cost and easy distribution like newspaper, things with long and rich contents like magazines and books, language enrichment, and have the ability to send physical objects with a formal classic newsletter. The disadvantages are that it gives too much information; some like magazines and books have a high cost of production; information flows slowly and all of this is produced with paper, a material that it is taken from nature and its consumption cause pollution.

On the other hand, we have the digital or modern media, instruments used after the apparition of telecommunications. Modern media consists of the telegraph (one of the first modern media, it is no longer used), television, radio, telephones and cellphones and the internet. Some advantages of digital media are that information flows more quickly and is presented in a direct and easy manner to understand; communication arrives to millions of persons at same time, in different parts of the world; to bring knowledge and entertain. Psychological and social problems, bad influences and high costs are some of the disadvantages of this type of media. The industrial revolution and technology has done all of these things and it has benefit and prejudiced our daily lives in many ways.

Communication medias are an important part of our life. Thanks to this, the entire world is connected enabling information to arrive to every part of the planet. Also allows social relationships in large distances. Our responsibility is to use medias in a way that benefits us and does not prejudice any person. This guarantees a great life style.

sábado, 5 de diciembre de 2015

References

sábado, 28 de noviembre de 2015

Conclusion