CHRISTMAS

Christmas is here

Christmas to me is a celebration that includes spending time with my family and the ones I love the most, decorating the entire house and shopping to give presents to my parents, my sister, my boyfriend and my best friends. Spend Christmas with the ones I love is what means the most to me.

We usually celebrate Christmas at my house but this year I will go to Romania to spend it with my grandmother and my uncle. My dad bought the passages months ago because there were cheaper. We’re going for three weeks and I’m already excited because the last time I saw my grandma was one year ago and I miss her a lot. I’m very close to her because she understands me and loves me so much. She is one of my favorites persons of the world.

I spent Christmas two times before in Romania and we don’t use to decorate so much the house, we just do the Christmas tree. I always do it with my sister and we put bonbons in the tree as globes. It’s so fun to eat the bonbons and close the wrapper and see my dad how disappointed he is when he sees there is no bonbon inside.

My sister has 10 and she still thinks Santa Claus exist. I like to see her eagerness the night before Santa’s coming and I won’t ruin her hope. We do the Santa’s letter together and it’s very fun see how much things she wants, she will bankrupt Santa.

Besides, this is the first time I have boyfriend and I would like to spend Christmas with him too. Three weeks are too much time without him and we won’t spend any day of Christmas’ celebrations together. This makes me feel sad because I love him a lot and I will miss him every day there. 

DENGUE VACCINE

Philippines launches probe into dengue vaccine scare

The dengue fever affects more than 400 million people each year, the disease is transmitted by the mosquito-bone and it’s the responsible of serious illness and death among children in Asia and Latin America. Dengue is a viral infection that causes a illness similar to flu.

Dengvaxia is the first approved dengue vaccine and it’s created by the French drug company Sanofi. The drug company announced that there are no reported deaths related to dengue vaccination.

Last week Sanofi announced its vaccine could worsen the deadly disease in people not infected. The OMS recommended that Dengvaxia should only be administrated to subjects with dengue.

When new diseases are appearing, pharmacists are looking into to solve them. Maybe, their solution is useless and they try to find a new one. They always taste the cure before sell it and they analyze all the symptoms could originate. When the cure is safe and the patient doesn’t get worse, the product has to be approved by the government and then, it could be sold in pharmacies. In a period of 5 years, the scientists analyze the impact of the cure in the population and if they see something wrong they abolish they product from the stores and try to resolve it. I want to be a pharmacist and make cures to solve diseases. The objective is save people, not make them get worst.  

SEAS POLLUTION

UN signals 'end' of throwaway plastic

UN environment ministers met in Kenya to sign a document stating that the flow of plastic into the ocean must be stopped.

Li Lin from WWF International said he want to see a progress on marine litter and micro-plastics and agreed by governments, business, NGOs and consumers as soon as possible because it’s an urgent issue.

Plastics are already damaging life in the sea but we can’t risk waiting before whole ecosystems start to be affected.

After all, the seas are also beset with climate change, acidification, dead zones and different types of pollution.

People is waiting to see governments prompted to move faster with their own polices to clamp down on waste plastic.

Stopping plastic litter requires new technology and new attitudes from the consumers.

Seas pollution is practically caused by flow of plastic. Plastic can’t decompose and its throw away in the ocean. The movement of the waves, the wind and the current accumulate all the plastic waste in a place of the ocean called seventh continent and that’s because covers an enormous space. This plastic is split by the solar radiation in micro-plastics that are ingested as a natural compound of the diet of some animals as fishes and birds. Those animals will be eaten by others animals and finally will affect whole ecosystems. We eat fish so we could say we eat plastic.

POLLUTION

Babies' brains damaged by pollution, Unicef says

UNICEF informed that at least seventeen million babies are breathing toxic air and putting their life at risk. Babies from South Asia are the most affected because are living in areas with pollution six times higher than safe levels.

UNICEF said that breathing polluted air could damage brain tissue and undermine brain’s development that could affect IQ and memory, reduce test scores as well as other neurological behavioral problems. The effects will last a lifetime.

ONU warned that as more as the world urbanizes without adequate protection and pollution reduction measures, more children will be at risk. They called for broad use of masks and air filtering systems.

In the Indian capital, Delhi, the smog air was covering the entire city and parents accused the authorities of haven’t in mine their children’s health.

In northern China, air pollution will cut life expectancy by about thee years. Meanwhile, scientists in London found that the British smog is linked to lower birth weights, higher infant mortality and disease later in life.

Most of countries and cities with high levels of pollution are underdeveloped countries and haven’t the money to reduce the emitting of contamination. The polluted air will stay in the atmosphere and we and the others animals will breath this air. I agree with UNICEF to increase the use of masks and filtering systems to reduce the high impact in our health.

Babies are not the only affected, all the population is affected and in most of cases, the same population is the responsible from the polluted air we breathe. We can’t do anything to solve it, the problem begins with the government and it’s the only one that can reduce the emitting of contaminants to the atmosphere by using methods that could respect the safe levels of pollution.

HAPPINESS

What I think about happiness

I don’t really know where to start… Happiness to me is everything: have the people I love close and enjoy the little things of live, as pizza, for example. These little things make us the happiest. It’s not a sensitive thing, quite the opposite, is the most subjective issue. Why it is an issue? Well, what makes one happy does not necessary make someone else happy. What I mean is that happiness is what we are dreaming about and it depends on each one.

Lots of poets, philosophers, writers had thought about happiness. For example, Aristotle said that happiness was an aspiration in live that everyone can got by knowledge. I think happiness is a state of mind, we cannot touch it, we just feel it. We may feel happiness when we win lottery, but it’s temporal happiness.

What’s more, I think happiness is about other people. Meaning it depends on our family or the closest persons we have. If our family or our friends are happy, we are happy. And if your boyfriend leaves you, you may feel heartbroken. On the other hand, if we succeed in live, we are happy. The sentiment of success may have a positive emotional impact on us, and that’s why we feel happy.

According to society, happiness is different depending on people’s age. Children don’t need a reason to be happy; in fact they release happiness around. Adolescents think they would get happiness if they follow trends, if they have brand clothes,… Adults are happy if they are making a family, having kids,… The elderly is happy if their kids are growing according to its expectations.

I have been always a happy girl, I laugh much and I feel very good accompanied by my beloved ones.

In my opinion, everyone should enjoy happiness. Be happy is the best feeling you can feel.

“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” – Socrates 

1-O Catalonia referendum

1-Oct, an historical memory

Catalans had requested a referendum for the independence from Spain. But the Spanish government had denied it. Despite everything, all Catalans have organized everything for today, 1^st October of 2017, for vote. They used public locals as schools for the illegal voting and Spain, from the other side, had demand to the police to confiscate all the ballot box. Guardia Civil and the National Police followed the government’s demand and they used violence against the civil population to cancel the vote. In spite of everything, the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalan’s police, gave support to the nation and they faced with the Spanish police.

The TUE, the UE’s treaty, invalidate the state that use military aggression against the population. And the Guardia Civil is a military body, by the way. Therefore, Spain can be judged by the TUE.

The people that vote today was united and with courage tried to stop the police aggression that were inhuman. The National Police tried to stop a referendum that the Spanish government declared as “illegal” with police’s responsibility, using nightsticks and rubber balls that are illegal in Catalonia. Meaning that Spain tried to stop the vote with illegal weapons.

Until today I didn’t consider myself an independentist but now Spain has disappoint me a lot. Today, Catalonia got the independence. Today, Spain lost Catalonia by its acts. 

Catalonia referendum

Tractors roll into Barcelona to support vote

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41439787

29.09.2017, Catalonia

Last Friday, there were a pile of tractors with the lone-star flag of Catalan independence standing up for Sunday’s banned referendum. The Spanish government wants to stop the referendum because it says is unconstitutional.

Catalonia has demanded a referendum on independence since 2010. There is a law that says all the autonomous communities can declare its liberty.

Tractoradas had been the centre of attention today. It could also been saw in Girona and Tarragona. The objective is to impede police officers to close the polling stations.

The police have orders from the state to confiscate all referendum materials and to prevent public buildings being used as polling stations. Nevertheless, teachers and students are organizing to keep them open for the vote, using coded messages on social media.

Hundreds of teachers and students made a manifestation on the streets to make clear to the Spanish government that Catalonia will vote. Besides, it has been set up a website so people can see which schools are open for the vote.

The Spanish government is opposed to the vote and will deploy thousands of national police officers to stop the vote and to guarantee Spanish sovereignty.

What’s more, the European Union said the referendum was illegal but they will work towards a political solution to solve the problem.

Catalans have its rights and can choose the future of their nation. We should all vote on Sunday because the future of a nation is up to us. I don’t declare myself independent and I think Catalans are the ones that must choose for Catalonia. As I learned in History, Catalonia has demanded independence since lots of years ago and there has been also a Catalan Republic. This one will be the second Catalan Republic, if the voting goes well. If the nation has success and gets the independence I wish the best to Catalonia and I hope there will not be political problems between countries and I also hope there will be free movement across the continent.

North Korea and the US

North Korea: Trump and Kim call each other mad

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-41356836

Friday, 22-09-2017 (Asia)

In Trump’s statement for a UN speech, he threats North Korea and its president, Kim Jon Un, saying that US will totally destroy North Korea if US it’s forced to defend itself. The two countries began to insult by calling each other “mad”.

North Korea started buying weapons and testing missiles. The Foreign Minister from Korea has warned US about testing the hydrogen bomb in the Pacific Ocean due to the US president’s threat.

Kim’s target is mounting the nuclear bomb and firing it over Japan into the Pacific Ocean. As a result, it could be environmental damage and fallout. What’s more, if the missile fails over Japan or prematurely detonate, there would be a nuclear war.

The president of North Korea said “Now that Trump has denied the existence of and insulted me and my country in front of the eyes of the world and made the most ferocious declaration of a war in history, Trump will pay dearly for his speech.” He ended by saying he would tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.

In response, Trump said in a tweet that Kim is a madman that doesn’t mind starving or killing his people.

In my opinion, the detonation of an H-bomb can be catastrophic for the world, one of theses bombs could end cities like New York and paralyze huge companies as Apple, Facebook and Google. Besides, the world doesn’t need a nuclear war. There are other solutions for make peace; one of them is sign a peace treaty. The consequences of a war are terrible, and the president from the United States Donald Trump is asking for war. He is threaten North Korea as if he could defend itself but he is only provoking Kim. The United States should know they will lose the war, they don’t have the armament and the atomic devices that Korea has. 

PAU'S WRITING

Sarah and Eva are talking about going shopping on Black Friday

Informal letter

Dear Lourdes,

Our summer holidays ended last week and I cannot imagine routine starts again. I do not want to because summer seems to me very short. I only went to the beach for a few times because I worked as a waitress in a Restaurant in Sant Pere Pescador. You may know it: Can Trona’s Restaurant. It’s such a big restaurant and we are a lot of workers. We have more than a hundred tables and it is always full. So, you can imagine the chaos.

Wherever, I did not want to start school again because I am scared for what comes next. I am scared for TdR, for Selectivitat and for University. I do not consider myself a coward but I think I am. I have my ideas clear and I know perfectly what I want to be in a future. My goals are finish what I started: Batxillerat, and then do the Selectivitat exam to enter at UB, Barcelona’s University. I want a degree in Pharmacy. My dream is to work in a lab and do chemical work like medicines. I want to be kind a doctor to heal people.

I know my dreams are not easy and I also know I have to effort myself until get it. I am sure I will. I trust myself as no one and I know my limits. I really believe in myself and I know that I will get wherever I propose. Besides, I have my family’s support, the most important in my opinion. Most people can not go to University because economical problems. I do not consider my family rich but they would do anything for my education. They always let me free to choose what I wanted; they never pushed me to do what they wanted. I am very happy for that and I appreciate them a lot, I know I can trust them as they can trust me.

Finally, but not less important, I have support from my boyfriend. I know I will have him ever after and he is very important for me because he gives me strength and balance. We faced lots of challenges and we keep going. All troubles make us stronger. Together we can do anything we propose. We will not surrender. I know I can count on him as he can count on me.

“No one’s written your destiny for you.”

As Obama said, no one writes our destiny. I truly think there is no destiny. Everyone is free to do what they want, to be what they want without depending on other people. 

We were born not to follow orders but to make things, things we like, things that can cause revolutions. Everyone is unique in this world and you need to prove it. Prove that you are not a normal person, that you have thoughts and dreams and that you can get success. Everyone has failures but you need to learn from them, not to disappoint yourself. 

Everyone has something to offer to the world and we need to find what it is, and it will be not easy. That is why you need strength; you must struggle for what you want.

I'm happy to see you again.

Best wishes,

Ioana Salajan

FINAL REFLECTION 1 BAT

I started learning English in 5th of Primary School and I wasn't good in languages, neither in maths, but when I started high school things had changed and I think my English has improved a lot. I can have a conversation with tourists and I understand them perfectly. Series and films had helped a lot, my vocabulary is much richer than before and I can express myself better. This year in BAT my grades and blog got better and I'm really happy for this.

I think I understand people when they talk to me in English and when I read something. Well, I know I do not understand everything I listen to or everything I read but every year is better. Every year I learn new things and I use what I learn for write in my blog. For example, if I'm watching a scientific series then I write about science in my blog.

How I said, my English has improved thanks to series and my blog. Reading has helped me too. I learned new words I never listened and now I'm watching series with English subtitles. This will help my vocabulary and my oral and writing expression. 

I think everything we did this year was useful. The units we did were quite interesting and we also did a lot of activities related to them. English classes are not boring because we do things and every day is different. I like the plannification and the way you do class. I hope next year will be the same. I think we spend a lot of time on computers instead of doing theoretical classes. I'm not saying I want more theory. I am saying that I want more notes in my notebook to have more examples and to study better.

I hope next year we will still watching movies, series and reading books. And, obviously, I want to continue writing on this blog cause I learn so much things.

My propposal for next year is simple. Teenagers are quite uncultured nowadays and I offer you a task for students. It consist of students find interesting and current news and explain them to the class. With this, students will be more cultured and we can do some discussion in class.

FORMAL LETTER

MY GAP YEAR

I FEEL SO LITTLE IN THIS BIG WORLD

I’m on that point in life that I don’t know what to do anymore. I got tired of everything and what is worst: I don’t know what I should do to change it.

I feel sad, lost and little in this big world and all this makes me feel useless and the result are tears in my eyes. Weep makes me feel better, is the way I get something out my chest and when I stop crying I clean my eyes and I force a smile in my face only because I need to accept reality.

I never talk about this, only one person knows about that depression I feel sometimes but I don’t want to tell details because no one understands my mind and I don’t want to scary them. Well, this may sound as if I want to kill people or something like that but what I feel is not that heavy.  

We can say that my thoughts are quite philosophical. They are about universe, reality, truth, existence, liberty and other things that worry me. I always had lots of questions and I tried many times to solve them but the answers scare me a lot.

This year in batxillerat we started learning philosophy and I realize my questions were questioned by many others philosophers. One of them was Descartes and I felt very identified with this personage. Well, I don’t really like philosophy and my grades are not so good but is a subject that interests me.

You may think this is nonsense but I don’t care. I have lots of thoughts and I don’t know how to organize them, which one is good and which one is bad. After all, no one knows what’s right and what’s wrong.

'BLUE WHALE' GAME

Are teenagers killing themselves in Russia as part of a social media game?

There is a game played online across Russia that instructs people to commit suicide.

The game involves teen completing daily tasks for 50 days and on the 50^th day, they have to kill themselves to win the game.

The problem with the game came up after a high rate of suicides in Russia.

The game is called Blue Whale as a reference to the way some blue whales commit suicide getting into the beach.

Yulia Konstantinova, 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, fell from the roof of a block of flats in Irkutsk and one of them had posted a picture of a blue whale on her social media account the same day of her death.

Another girl, Ekaterina, 13, was critically injured after falling from a fifth-floor flat in Krasnoyarsk.

Authorities have opened criminal cases looking into the influence of the game, but it wasn’t mentioned.

A Russian media has linked 130 suicides to the game, in fact, there aren’t official data that links any one death to the Blue Whale Game.

Nevertheless, the Blue Whale Game exists and is popular in Vkontakte, a social networking site popular among Russians.

The game includes self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours. Reporters crated a fake profile and one of the administrators asked to cut “F58” into their arm. The conversation finished after the reporter sent a photoshopped image.

References to the game are now appearing on other sites more popular like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It seems unreal, how people can commit suicide only because a game. Is not the first time I heard about how teens kill themselves only because a reference. There appear a very popular series called 13 Reasons Why that’s about a teenager who commits suicide and after then, there are cases of suicide between teens.

I read somewhere that the proposal of this game is “clean the society”. The creator of the Blue Whale Game said once that the game’s goal is to makes people who “don’t deserve to life” commit suicide. He said that only mad people will take his life over and those people do not deserve life. This seems to me a very tragically phenomenon. 

THE MOST SPECTACULAR PLACES OF THE WORLD

Our world is full of beauty and I found all those places I think are awesome. I will start with the best ones for me:

Fly Geyser, Nevada

It isn’t a natural geyser but is a rainbow geologic wonder. In 1964, after a searching on geothermal energy, the place didn’t closed and the liquefied minerals got accumulated creating forms with many colours.

Great Blue Hole, Belize

It’s a large underwater sinkhole. The hole is circular and is 125 meters deep. The Great Blue Hole is the best place to do underwater activities and it’s said that the deeper you go, the water become clearer.

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

These lakes are located in the biggest National Park of Croatia. The most beautiful thing of these lakes is that form waterfalls between them, making a paradise. There are 16 lakes can be explored by boat or by feet, crossing the walkway witch connects the path of the park.

The Door to Hell of Darvaza, Turkmenistan

In 1970, soviet geologists were searching gas there and the floor sank leaving a hole of 20 meters deep. For not to let the harmful gases evaporate, the scientists set fire to this gas-filled cave. 40 years later, the crater is still burning like a real door to hell, hence the name.

Bryce Canyon, Utah, United States

The Bryce Canyon is situated between 2.400 and 2.700 meters up. The formation has a pyramidal shape and receives the name of “Hoodoos”.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

The Salar de Uyuni is the biggest salt desert of the world, with a surface of 10.000 m^2­. It was part of the prehistoric salt lake (Lago Minchín) witch once covered most of the southwest of Bolivia.

Pamukkale Thermal Pools, Turkey

“Pamukkale” in Turkey means “Cotton Castle”. Thousand years ago, lots of earthquakes were hitting Asia Minor and, as result, the rocks were moved and broken so the underground waters were released on the surface. Over two million of tourists come to this place annually. Pamukkale is the second most visited attraction in Turkey.

Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand

Some look like eggs from dinosaurs, others are hollow inside and some measure up to 2 meters. Scientists explain the boulders were formed about 65 million years ago and according a Maori legend, the boulders are rests of the fishing, pumpkins and potatoes that arrived at the coast after the shipwreck of the Araiteuru canoe.

Reed Flute Cave, Guangxi, China

This is a natural cave of limestone with multicolored lighting. It’s over 180 million years old and was forgotten during miles of years until 1.940, by a group of Japanese refugees.

BREAST CANCER

Julian Rios Cantu, a 18th Mexican teenager, has invented a bra to detect breast cancer.

The Eva bra is only a prototype made by him and three friends but they raised enough money to start the tests, on one hand, thank to Higia Technologies, the company which develop their idea.

Could this bra detect breast cancer?

How would it work?

The biosensors in the bra would measure temperatures and log them and alert the user to any considerable changes. Women would need to wear the bra during 60-90 minutes a week to get precise measurements.

Will it work?

There would need to be medical trials before recommending it as a way to find cancer. In fact, the sensors measure the increase of the blood flow and it isn’t necessarily a marker of cancer.

Is very important a rigorous testing, to make sure innovations will benefit patients and not the opposite.

First signs of breast cancer:

- Lumps in the chest or armpit area

- A change in the size, shape or feel of a breast

- Fluid leaking from the nipple

- Pain in the chest

Julian invented this bra because her mother nearly died after her breast cancer was not detected early.

This prototype of bra would be effective because finding breast cancer early can make a real difference to the way of surviving the disease. The breast cancer is very common in women and this will probably get a descent of the harmed.