Sporting superstitions

Legendary Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff used to slap his goalkeeper in the stomach before each match. Tennis ace Serena Williams alwaysbounces her ball five times before her first serve. Jennifer Aniston, it is reported, touches the outside of any plane she flies in with her right foot before boarding. From touching wood for good luck, to walking around ladders to avoid bad luck, we all have little routines or superstitions, which make little sense when you stop to think about them. And they are not always done to bring us luck. I wait until just after the kettle has boiled to pour the water for a cup of tea, rather than pouring just before it boils. I do not know why I feel the need to do this, I am sure it cannot make a difference to the drink.

Some athletics have rituals while, before or after they play. This repetitive action or ritual is in our brains, we use to repeat an action which we know before has succeeded. Our brain prefers to repeat an action which is known to have good results rather than look for another new one. If we think about superstition we take notice that they are non-senses, but finally we repeat it to get luck.

In my opinion there isn't any reason to think that superstitions will help me, I think the opposite, if I forget to do something (superstition) I will have a bad sense and I won't feel comfortable. I'm going to explain what happened to me: The day of my TDR oral presentation I took a symbol (a blue glass stone with an eye in the middle) which my aunt gave me as a present after her journey to Greece. The symbol was supposed to bring good luck, but when I was putting it inside my pencil case it fell down and it broke in several pieces. I thought "Oh my God". But I went to my oral presentation quite calm and all ended well.

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Ears and noses from test tube

Researchers from Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London have become the first to turn stem cells from body fat in the abdomen of children into living cartilage, through tissue engineering.

This ground-breaking procedure could help young patients who are born with debilitating facial abnormalities, such as 'microtia’, where the outer ear is underdeveloped, or those who require reconstructive surgery after an accident.

Experts believe it could ultimately be utilised in many other types of transplant surgery, to help reduce the risk of the body rejecting a replacement organ.

Currently, when facial features of children with severe birth defects need to be rebuilt, surgeons have to take cartilage from other parts of the body, such as the ribs, which is an invasive and painful procedure.

British scientists have developed a great technique. They have developed a process to grow ears and noses. They take stem cells from the body's fat and in a laboratory through tissue engineering they turn into living cartilage. This technique benefits patients who had any abnormality when they were born or people who has suffered an accident.

In my opinion this is a fantastic development. Most of the patients will improve their lives' quality because we live in a world where the beauty is very important, we saw it last term. The members (noses and frame's ears) are achieved in a combination of natural and artificial materials.

Development is very important in our society and we see a lot of improvements. It's very different these kind of surgery than the other one which only searches  beauty, in these cases is a necessity for these persons. 

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Circulation degradation

Vehicles are ensnared at an intersection in Xi’an, the capital city of Shaanxi province, where according to wires reports the traffic signal failed. The city is often plagued by serpentine traffic jams, and heavy smog this winter has compounded those problems, reducing visibility for motorists. As BBC News reported, Chinese authorities are facing mounting pressure from citizens to regulate pollution-intensive industries and seek carbon-neutral forms of energy production and transport. (Photo: ChinaFotoPress/Getty)


In Xi'an, China, a traffic signal failed and lots of vehicles were ensnared at an intersection. The big amount of vehicles had produced an intensive air pollution which reduced the visibility for motorbike riders. This smog also is harmful for the health. Chinese authorities want to regulate pollution coming from industries and transport after the pressure done from citizens. 

In my opinion this article shows the big problem which is living China. The high level of toxic gases in the air produces an unbearable way to breath. The Government should take part in this problem but they probably crash against industries, which defend their benefits.

All together have to fight to protect the earth because all of us live in it.

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Self evaluation

Arià Canadell: Research project
Presentation (10%)	Do you use any resources? Are the resources relevant and attractive and focused on the topic? Do they support your presentation? Is the timing 5-7 minutes? I used a Prezi which is always useful, I put in it all the titles and some images to make my presentation understandable. I also brought the home model in order to entretain the crowd a bit, that made longer my presentation. I don't know  how much time I was speaking but I calculated to speak more or less five minutes without the home model.		10
Body language and eye contact (10%)	Are you looking at your audience most of the time? Are you reading occasionally from your notes? Are you doing any gestures / movement to hold the attention of the audience? I didn't do it, I said the text without looking any note, but I was so nervous that I whatched too much the images in the prezi.		7.5
Structure (10%)	Do you organize your ideas in order of importance? Do you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear? I tried to organize the text in three parts: the introduction, the main explanation and the conclusion.  In the introduction I said which parts I were going to explain: construction, software and hardware. In the main explanation I explained these parts and in the conclusion I showed the home model.		10
Content (35%)	Do you introduce interesting, NEW information to your audience? Is your information detailed and clear? Do you give / show examples? Is your information copied from a source or is it original? Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books…? I think so, it was my research project and I don't know if there were any expert in the room but I hope it was interesting for someone. All the information was original from my project. The information was well selected.		32.5
Language (25%)	Is your grammar correct, complex? Is your vocabulary rich and varied? Do you use sentence linkers? Do you use pause fillers? I made a quite good presentation until I explained the home model, because I didn't study any technical words and I didn't know the correct vocabulary so it was a bit embarasing		12.5
Pronunciation  (10%)	Do you know how to pronounce all your words? Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? Do you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions? Before the presentation I knew how to pronounce it all but when you're in front of the class you change  all, you try to pronounce it good but your mouth is thinking on which is next word has to say. Total: 77.5%		5
Oral presentation:	(-1) Project TGIF, my name is Arià Canadell and I will do my research project’s oral presentation that is the building of a smart home controlled by mobile devices. First I will explain my project and finally I will show my home model. 0 Introduction I chose a technologic topic because I’ve been always interested on it, it’s a science that evolves very fast and it has immediately effects on the society. I proposed myself to make a smart home model but a teacher said to me that it was too seen and he proposed me to control it by mobile devices. My research project is divided in the theoretical part and the explanation of my programs and the build process. 1 Home automation I divide my theoretical part in these points. Firstly the definition of Home automation is “set of electronic elements connected between them to automate a house”. There are four types of components: sensors, transmitters, control unit and actuators. There are three types of systems; I used the centralized one where the control unit is the most important element. There are a lot of applications for example the power control, automation, security and communication. 2 Home model I divide my home model in three parts to explain it, build process, hardware and software. Build process 1-    I impressed my standard house from a design I made on a program called Sweet Home. Then I pasted it to a black foam board. 2-    I made the walls with the same material and I made the window joining pieces of plastic by clips, and all connected to the servo. 3-    I connected Dupont cables from the control unit to the actuators. 4-    This is the final result; we can see all sensor and the actuators on their places. Hardware I will not explain the hardware used because it’s not important now, I will just show the elements I used, and here there is the outline of the connections on the motherboard. Software I made two types of programs, the first one which was App Inventor is used to create the mobile application. The language to program is very visual. Basic is the language that I used to introduce the instructions I wanted in the motherboard PICAXE. It’s easy to program with it because there are only a few important words from where you can create a lot of combinations. Conclusion It had been difficult to summarize my project in the presentation, and the translation has been shorter, so I have omitted a lot of information. There are a lot of technical words that I didn’t know before. I’m happy with the final result of my smart home model because I have reached all the objectives I proposed myself at the beginning even more complex than I thought. I hope you have enjoyed with my presentation. Now I will show you the home model. Do you have any question?.

Research paper abstract

My research project is the study of the construction of a home model controlled by mobile devices. I made it trying to be realistic according to the needs we use to have. I incorporate the mobile to control it to make the difference between similar projects. I concluded that it will make easier our daily routine but nowadays it has the price issue.

Pride and perjudice- Social class

In the book we read there were explained many situations that make us a little idea of the ancient social class and the difference between characters according to their incomes. The most surprising thing I saw in the novel was the interest showed by the mother to find a rich husband for her daughters. In that age rich families could only got married with other high class' families to preserve the richness and the reputation. Nowadays it's different in my opinion, I think that it can keep happening in some families but we can find some cases where a rich man meets a nice middle class girl and they get married, for example our prince Felipe and Leticia. I don't know the current situation in Britain but according to the video we saw in class there are still families who have a lot of money and they live in palaces, all inherited from their ancestors. They have different manners because they are educated different than the rest.

How succes affect people behaviour?

Nowadays we watch almost every day on TV how people (singers, athletics, actors...) become famous and even more rich in a short time. They earn amazing amounts of money while they are adults but in some cases they are teenagers. How can they manage to keep on with their life's styles, their friends, their family... 

I think that in many cases society spoil them. Our curiosity brings the press to burst their lives constantly and sometimes it's published false information. Why they get married and divorce so many times? What's love for famous people, is it the same than for us? It seems that they only want even more money trough exclusives. It can cause a wheel where they can't escape. There are famous who manage carefully their success and try to live normal in private places. On the other hand we have famous people that enjoy too much of their richness but it will just causes them problems.

Burst

Violence

Violence... A much discussed topic. For example Hobbes said that human race is bad until their born while Locke thought that we are good people when we born but the society corrupt us. I don't know who was right but it's a fact that there are wars, battles, fights, arguments... Violence. I've never fought against another person but I've seen a lot of fights. When I see two persons fighting I feel really strange, between nervous and afraid. There is a little part of me that says "close your eyes right now" but there is another one that forces me to watch the show. I suppose that I feel like that because I don't know the end, that's why I'm afraid. I consider important damages on the fighters and I don't want that. I have only view students battles and some adult fights which are really amazing. 

I think it's a stupid way to show your disaprovement to the people. My father always says: "In a battle you can ONLY lose, there isn't any chance to win, even if you hit harder". 

Electronic devices

There is a topic that nowadays we hear many times: a strong addiction to electronic devices. Is it true? The society can't live without them? Nobody has the certain answer. I'm a teenager, so I can just give my humble opinion.

Everybody has to admit that the mobile phone is very useful for many of us, we need the phone because without it we can't work, we can't communicate as well as now, we can't do several sorts of things... So it's true that we need it and consequently most of us use it a lot of time. But we can't consider it an addiction, is sleeping an addiction? Is food an addiction? I don't think so, when we think  on an addiction we are thinking on the extreme of everything. 

All in all we can find one addicted to electronic devices considering these things: It can causes health problems? He/she avoid any of his/her responsibilities to play any electronic games? He/she prefers the electronic way to express herself/himself than the personal one?. If any of these questions is positive you can have a problem with nowadays' technologies.

Roger Federer won Dubai's tournament

World number eight Roger Federer produced another impressive comeback to beat Tomas Berdych and win the Dubai Tennis Championships for a sixth time.

Federer fought back from a set down to beat Novak Djokovic for the first time in 18 months in Friday's semi-final.

The 32-year-old needed those powers of recovery again as he fought back from a set and a break down to beat Berdych.

A 3-6 6-4 6-3 victory secured the 78th tour-level title of the Swiss' career - and first for nine months.

Third seed Berdych, 28, had won his previous encounter with Federer, in the Dubai semi-finals last year, and the Czech looked on course for another victory when he took the first set.

Federer squandered an early break of serve lost four games in a row from 2-1 ahead and managed to get just 40% of his first serves in.

But after saving consecutive break points with aces in the fifth game of the second set, he stamped his authority on the match to secure the title.

Roger Federer after nine months has won an ATP tennis tournament. He is currently in the eight position of the world’s ranking. Roger eliminated tennis players like Novak Djokovic (2) or Berdych (6), a good week for the Swiss’ player

Roger Federer, he doesn’t need any explanation… He is a legend. Roger has won many tournaments but this one is not like all the other ones. Why? Because Federer is thirty two years old and he keeps staying in the tennis world’s top.  Nowadays he is not wining as he used to, it’s completely normal, and I suppose that are difficult times for a big player like him. So I was glad to know about his  championship victory in Dubai.

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Mobile World Congress

The annual Mobile World Congress highlights the latest trends in mobile technology and services. It runs from 24 – 27 February in Barcelona, this year, and is organized by the GSMA (GSM Association). The congress brings together mobile operators, equipment vendors as well as industry figures.

Every year there is global meeting where the most important companies take out their new products and they expose their best qualities. The mobile world congress always attracts a lot of people so it’s so good for the city where it takes place, in this case, Barcelona. Many people come here from all around the world, especially sector employers to discover all the updates. It brings a lot of money to the city so it’s an honor to receive it. This year the most shocking new product was the Samsung V which was very expected.

I’m a fan of new technologies but I’ve never been in a world congress. I don’t know if I can go to one of them but probably isn’t open to everybody.  

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practicing any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert?

A much-touted theory suggests that practicing any skill for 10,000 hours is sufficient to make you an expert. No innate talent? Not a problem. You just practice. But is it true?

One man who decided to test it is Dan McLaughlin, 34, a former commercial photographer from Portland, Oregon.

"The idea came in 2009. I was visiting my brother and we decided to play a par three, nine-hole course," he says. "I had never really been on a golf course and went out and shot a 57, which is horrible. It's 30 over par on an easy nine-hole course."

Far from being discouraged by his apparent lack of any natural talent for golf, Dan and his brother started talking about what it would take to become a professional golfer. Dan soon decided he wanted to try.

Many experts suggest that there is a specific number of hours to learn a sport. In this case a photographer, who didn’t played before golf tried to become a professional golfer, finally he achieve it approximately after 10.000 playing golf. Once a musician made an experiment, he observed two little children with the same age (5). Both without any apparent talent to play the violin, at the age of eighteen, one had practiced 10.000 hours and he played as an expert but the other one, with just 4.000 hours practiced didn’t play as good as the other one, but there was a big difference between them. The big musician concluded that in a certain number of hours we make a big change for the better.

 In my opinion it can be true but I think that they have to make clear which kind of training is useful because training without an expert supervision can cause injuries and bad habits in the sport technique.

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Much-touted

Can Internet change the world for the better?

It's obvious that Internet will change the world, but in which way?. Our children will have a completely different life. It has its advantatges and its disatvantatges. Let's discuss a few of them:

On the one hand, Internet will change the world in a positive way because it will make our daily routine easier. So far for example we can already buy an extensive sort of things without leaving home. Moreover, we can find an amazing amount of information. Consequently, we don't need to buy books and we must not kill as many trees as we used to. The last but not least positive effect it will have is that it's a powerful way to move forward in our society.

On the other hand, it can hurt us in some ways. To be in front of a screen for many hours can be unhealthy, the commodity I mentioned above can cause a lack of activity that it will increase the obesity. However, the main problem is the addiction that Internet produces. Adding to that, less personal comunication.

All in all, Internet will make better our lives but we have to control ourselves using it.

University

I'm thinking about what I'll study in the university. It's a very difficult decision because we know that it's important to choose a career that you feel comfortable and it has future. Nowadays it's very difficult to choose a job with workplaces. Last week came to IES Castelló d'Empùries two university teachers to explain to us how was the UAB. They said that it's very important to have a degree from another country, for example USA, because this degree is something that makes the difference with the current people. And if we are current people we won't get a job. So it's important to go out and study in other languages. They also recommend to study here a good career and only do a master outside. Because our careers are good recompensed in other countries.


I would like to study any career focused on technology or mathematics. I haven't got any problem to go to another country to study, it's my future, and I can sacrifice some years t get a job. The price is important because I can't pay too much for a career. And if I go outland to study I have to get a scholarship probably coming from tennis, then I could study a career and play tennis for the team of the University because pay the apartment, the food, the degree and other things it's impossible without a job, and if I'm studying it's very difficult to do both things.

Eurovegas

The  most important casino in Europe will be build in Madrid and that's a good and a bad notice at the same time. If the casino had been build in Barcelona we had got a lot of workplaces and a lot of money from the Eurovegas casino but we had to change our laws because it could be legal. I have ever been in a casino because I'm not old enough  but I think that the ambient isn't the best, there are many people addicted to the game. This type of installations uses to attract a lot of people.
Catalan farmers are against the project because they don't want to lose their fields for the building of a casino. It's an extremely expensive project so the president is one of the richest man in the world. He visited Barcelona and Madrid to analyse the better option and finally he decided Madrid maybe because it's the capital of Spain and there are more population in the city, but in Barcelona we have the coast and a lot of tourism. 
The building is really big and amazing for everybody. The structure of the casino is very particular and very luxurious. The casino needs energy and good conditions (water, gas....).

Research project

We are students of sixteen years old and we must do an extensive project talking about some topic. First, I had no idea, only I would do something related about technology or physics. When the teachers show us the options I decided to study the energetic system of the high school but my technology teacher told me that the project was an error and I couldn't do it. So I made a propose also related on this. First I thought in a sustainable house but it wasn't original and I added some automatic systems to create an automatic sustainable house. But the automatic elements are very expensive so I will try to reduce the cost of them  doing it available for us. I made the propose but they haven't except it yet, but my technology teacher said that it was a good project and maybe they should accept it.  

I don't know if I will have many problems doing it, and I don't Know what I'll do in the practice part. This project is to prepare us for the future and the mark of the project is very important so we will work hardly. Last year we did a similar project but it was in groups, I did with Eloi and Pau about the skydive of Empuriabrava but we didn't get a good mark because we started too  late and we didn't work very hard.

Tsunami

Last year I was in Hawai, in an incredible hotel. I was lying near the swimming pool when a big wave arrived to the beach, it was the biggest one I had ever seen. The people were running in every direction and I only could think on my family, but after a little moment I decided to get to top of the hotel. The wave hit all I could see but our hotel was save because it was placed near a mountain and the water only destroyed the garden. After that I turned on my television to watch what had happened in the beach, then I phoned my wife I told her all about the wave and that I was safe and all my job's friends too.  However I went to the other bedrooms to talk to my friends and ask who they were. Then we went together and it wasn't nobody in the reception. The receptionist wasn't there so we decided to went out of the hotel. All the people were nervous and they were phoning their families but when they saw us outside they started to shout us, they were saying that we must went out quickly. So we returned and another wave shocked harder than the first one. So some unknown people  saved our lives. Afterwards we went to the beach and we helped people curing them with few medicines. The houses were destroyed and some persons were hurt. It was a very bad experience. I felt really frightened. Since then I have not travelled any more to an exotic country.

Excursion

I want to take part in a summer expedition because it has all the qualities I want. I love animals and particularly strange ones, so I want to travel to an exotic place. My dreams are become the best veterinary in the world, so I need practice and know new animals. Also I'm very strong and adventurous, for that reason going to a difficult place isn't a problem for me. My grandfather was explorer and now he is an excellent veterinary. I'm very healthy, I don't smoke anything and I don't drink alcohol so I'm qualified to practice heavy activities. When I was five I learnt swimming and I was the faster swimmer in the region but I had an important problem in my left leg. Now I only swim in the summer but short distances and once a week I go to the gym to keep me fit. I'm Spanish so I speak this language perfectly and I if could go to Spain I could speak perfectly. My brother did an expedition in Cuba last year and he told me that was fantastic and he met her girlfriend there. I have an aunt there, I visit her every two years. I think that it could be a good option because I know more or less that country. I don't have experience going alone but I'm ready to do it for first time. The travel only could last two months. 

Restaurant

Perelada's restaurant

Last week I went with my family to Perelada, in a traditional restaurant, by car, because we didn't have anything for eat at home. We had been many times there so we didn't have any problems to find the restaurant. It's in the entrance of the little town, it has a little garden outside and some flowers on it. The restaurant is modern, formal and quiet. It wasn't cramped at all, so in general it was noisy.

The food was excellent, when we demanded our dishes and our drinks, we could wait watching a sports channel in the big TV which it was in the corner of the room. Quickly we got the food, I ate a fantastic meal with potatoes, salad and a cold drink. The service was polite and we got a cheap price.
I ate an excellent cheese sandwich and skewers with some potatoes and croquettes.

It isn't my best restaurant because I prefer other type of food but I recommend this restaurant if you are searching a quite place to eat with your family with a good price. It's a good place to meet friends and go with your family.  

Book review

  "Todos los cuentos"

The last book I have read was the Spanish book "todos los cuentos", in this there are eight different histories. Most of them are sad because always a character dies or get crazy. Some of them are quite difficult to understand, the histories are very confusing because the narrator says one thing but finally it was a dream and things like this. The history I enjoyed more was "Mi hermana Elba". Because it was easy to understand and the topic was creative, but finally the main character Elba gets ill and finally she dies in an accident. The worst one, in my opinion, "reloj de Bagdad"  because it was very strange and there were two old women that nobody know if they were alive or they had died. Everybody in the class said different destinations about the women. 

I don't like the way which uses the writer to express her ideas. It's too much difficult to understand for us, and I spend a lot of time trying to read it with our level. I don't like the stories in general but I have to recognise that if we understand all what she want to explain, the stories could be interesting. 

We must read eight histories more because we have an exam, but I won't read it because I haven't interest in this book.