Creating a Comic

Poem in the Undergroung

Proud readers
Hide behind tall newspapers.

The young are all arms and legs
Knackered by youth.

Tourists sit bolt upright
Trusting in nothing.

Only the drunk and the crazy
Aspire to converse.

Only the poet
Peruses his poem among the adverts.

Only the elderly person
Observes the request that the seat be offered to an elderly person.

D.J.Enright

Here is my comic about this poem.

So, Where is home?

I'm not from here

James McMurtry

I'm not from here 

I just live here 

Grew up somewhere far away 

Come here thinking I'd never stay long 

I'd be going back soon someday 

It's been a few years 

Since I got here 

Seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go 

Crowds assemble, they hang out awhile 

Then they melt away like an early snow 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Down the road to points unknown 

Sending postcards when they get there 

Wherever it is they think they're goin' 

I'm not from here 

I just live here 

Can't see that it matters much 

I read the papers and I watch the nightly news 

Who's to say I'm out of touch 

Nobody's from here 

Most of us just live here 

Locals long since moved away 

Sold the played-out farms for parking lots 

Went off looking for a better way 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Better times on down the road 

Wonder if they ever got there 

Wherever it was they thought they'd go 

Hit my home town 

A couple years back 

Hard to say just how it felt 

But it looked like so many towns I might've been through 

On my way to somewhere else 

I'm not from here 

But people tell me 

It's not like it used to be 

They say I should have been here 

Back about ten years 

Before it got ruined by folks like me 

We can't help it 

We just keep moving 

It's been that way since long ago 

Since the stone age, chasing the great herds 

We mostly go where we have to go 

Onto some bright future somewhere 

Down the road to points unknown 

Sending post cards when we get there 

Wherever it is we think we'll go

I think this song represent at some parts what TCK's feel about. I choose it because if the main idea if the song, the feeling of not belonging anywhere, feeling rootless. This music makes me feel upset because it refers to a man who has got no home. When I hear the lyrics of this song I immediately think in TCK's, because they are constantly moving from one country to another, without an specific home. I relate this song to the feelings that I think a Third World Kid may have each time they are asked from where they are from. The main idea can be found when the songs makes a repetition in "I'm not from here/I just live here", to clarify the idea. "Grew up somewhere far away/Come here thinking I'd never stay long " leaves a message very similar to TCK's lifes. I think that the song's main issue is feeling rootless. One of TCK's challenges is feeling rootless and belonging anywhere. The main reason of this feeling is being constantly travelling from one country to another

Punk for a Month, Connecting with other Stories

In the movie Cars, Lighting McQueen is a famous race car, and lives in a luxurious world. He is a conceited car, and he only worries about himself and winning the Piston cup. after an accident that leads him to an old town, he meets some town cars. He judges them because of their appearance, and tries to escape from them. He thinks that this old cars are all crash, an dare completely weird, but as soon as he gets to know them he realises that those cars are not what he thought. Is very similar to the text "Punk for a month" in the aspect that Julie is judged by her friend by her appearance and not by her feelings, her inner side, which I think is more important. She is considered different (weird) because of her new look, but she is still the same girl she used to be the day before her change. I think this issue is very common in our society, we are used to judge people by their appearance and we let them outside our interest points. 

Punk for a month

1.-What does appearance indicate about a person? in what ways may appearance be misleading? When is appropriate to judge people based on appearance? When is it inappropriate?

 Maybe their social position may be given by their appearance, but it depends on each person. I think that judging because of the appearance being appropriate or not depends on the context. Judging someone that looks mysterious in the middle of the night may be appropiate in terms of your own security, but in other cases is completely inappropriate.

2.- Is Julie fair to her old friends in the change she makes? How might she have handled the change differently so as not to alienate her friends?

I don't think Julie is fair to her friends, because she makes a huge change and didn't gave them the chance to accept her. She should explain them her feelings and the reasons why. Also, she arrived with the intention to have a conflict, instead of talking overtly with her friends.

3.- Julie makes new friends once she changes her appearance. What problems can you predict with these new friends?

 That tis friends will like her because of her outside appearance, ad not by the inner part. Maybe they accept her because she belonged t their group, but they don't know her at all, so probably, when they get to know her, she could be rejected from this group.

4.- Does Julie change internally as a result of changing externally? Can simply dressing differently influence a person's character? Why, or why not?

I think she makes a little change in her inner part, by changing her friends, but she is still the same Julie. A change in the way people dress can make a difference in their character, maybe giving more confidence or security in that individual, because the way you may feel using different clothes can change your life style.

Personal Response

“The Akanksha clinic is at the forefront of India’s booming trade in so-called reproductive tourism — foreigners coming to the country for infertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization. The clinic’s main draw, however, is its success using local women to have foreigners’ babies. Surrogacy costs about $12,000 in India, including all medical expenses and the surrogate’s fee. In the U.S., the same procedure can cost up to $70,000.”

Science has developed considerably in a few years. But this development is facing some ethical issues that can’t be left a side. In this case, the surrogated mother is being a problem. Science has created a way to make unfertile mothers to give birth to their children by a “natural” pregnancy. But this process faces a lot of issues, such as abuse and slavery. The process can be acquired both in the US and in India, but in the last one is importantly cheaper. Why is there such a difference? Is an Indian mother less valuable than a US mother? I don’t think so.

Here we can appreciate abuse in a high level, but Indian mothers don’t feel like that. This is because, with the money they achieve while accepting this job, they can afford higher life expectations. But this is also an abuse, because they are paid less than a fourth than a US mother. Medicine is giving poor mothers the option of selling their body; “rent” their womb to American mothers who can’t achieve a pregnancy.  Because of the desperation of not having enough money, people are able to do anything. Science has opened the opportunity to be used by other people in exchange of money.  But is also an escape way to exploitation, because the amount of money a surrogated mother achieves in one birth is higher to the amount they may receive in another job in India. So it have negative and positive connotations that may affect or benefit mothers around the world.

Womb for rent

1. What does “reproductive tourism” mean? 

 This term applies to people who travel o other countries (India) to "rent" a mother to have  baby.

2. What issues might cause an American woman to seek an Indian surrogate?

An American woman may seach in India because of the lower cost that implies to "rent a womb", in comparison with the US.

3. What risks and benefits exist for the surrogate mothers in India? 

Risks: Maybe, the society wouldn't accept it. Also, it may be risky to mothers to lodge a foreign baby, in term of the biological reaction of the mother's body.

Benefits: The amount of money they afford is higher trhan the amount thei will achieve in their exsaustive job in a long time of hardworking.

4. What risks and benefits exist for the women who hire a surrogate? 

Risks: Maybe, the child could inherit a disease from the surrogated mother. Also, the pregnancy process could not be as safe as the biological mother would want to.

Benefits: Having a Child.

5. Do you agree with the people who believe that the Indian women are being 
exploited? Why or why not? 

I don't see this as explotation, becasue, as Dr. Patel mentions, mothers who "rent" themselves are hardly studied to acknowldge that thei are not being forcded or explode by their husbands or families. So is a completely voluntary option that mothers who wish to give their children a better li8fe can take.

The individual Oral

Brief points:

• Image analysis
• FIRST Robotics Competition (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology)Robots replacing games
• Decrease of human interaction
• Robot's integration to our daily life
• Lower amount of children practicing sports
• Robots accomplishing another functions
• Impact in society
• Future impacts

Click here to hear mi presentation!

Designing a robot

TRIPLE H: Home Helper for Handicapped
We were assigned to develop a robot which could accomplish a specific task. With my partner, Mr. Ugarte, we decided to solve the dependance of another human when people is incapable to solve their own every day problems.

1. What problem or challenge does the robot solve?
The main challenge is to order and carry different stuff, in order to make the handicapped people's life easier.

2. What are some of the functions you will program your robot to carry out?
To bring what you need, food, books, clothes, etc.

3. What materials will it be made out of? 
It will be made out of racicled materials to decrease the price of it.

4. How will the robot sense its surroundings?
By different sensors and cameras, like the ones used to park cars, and some thermal sensors to notice people.

5. How will it move and respond to the environment?
With omnidirectional wheels, to make the movement in any direction, fast and safe.

6. How or why is a robot better equipped to handle this challenge than a human?
Maybe is not better equipped than a human, but in long term issues is cheaper and can work full time, 24/7.

7. What specific functions will the robot carry out? What components will the robot include that help it carry out these tasks?
It will scan products from the kitchen and bring them to the person, it will scan the bar code to know what is handling. It will also carry stuff with an arm with multiple movements.

8. What will the robot look like? Will it look humanlike? Why or why not?
It will be very similar to a spider, with multiple arms. Because of functional issues, it will be better than a human becuase it will carry more than one thing at the same time.

9. How will the robot’s appearance influence how people interact with it?
Maybe it will be kind of scary to interact with, but the main purpose is to carry things, so the interaction is minimum.

10.  What limitations does the robot have?
The robot will not be able to go up-stairs, so the place to work must be modified or limitated to the robot. It will be slow in his movement and will not reach every corner in the place.

Stem Cells Breakthrough & Seeds of Hope

• Why are stem cells considered so valuable for medical research?

Becuase Stem Cells can transform into any cell of the body (plurypotent)

• Why did the researchers have to narrow the spectrum of genes within stem cells? (video 1)

Beacuase they needed to find an specific combinationon of genes that make this cell.

• What are the sources of stem cells and the advantages and disadvantages associated with using each?

The advantages: create any cell you need to regenerate an organ.

The disadvantages: to regenerate organs, you need to take stem cells from an embryo, which will die after.

• What are the three cases presented at the beginning of the second video?

A hockey player injured on his spinal cord; a man with diabetes; two little girls who had Tay-Sachs.

• How might a stem cell be used to treat spinal cord injuries?

Introduce them in the affected zone and then whait until it regenerates.

• Explain the outcome of the experiment with injured rats presented in the second video?

Some rats were used on the experimentation, they were handicapped, and after the treatment, they were able to walk, improving their life expectancy.

• What issues surround the debate over of stem cell research?

Some ethical issues, because killing an embryo for the beneffit of other people is very controversial, for example.

• What issue do you think needs to be debated as we make decisions about stem cell research?

To have the abbility of controling other people's life.

Stem Cells Research: Genetic Tool Kid video

1. How has evolution tinkered  with genes of animals?
2. What role has embryos played in the study of evolution?
3. What did the experiment with fruit flies and mice show?
4. What does the presence  packages of information suggest about evolution?

1. Evolution have been creating new combinations every time, producing new species.
2. It is easier to whatch the development of the being in this stage,the differents evolutive stages of the embryo. 
3. The genes are the same, because all the species came from one being. But how they decode the gene is what makes the difference between the species.
4. Every single specie have the same package of information, but evolution have been creating new combinations, without taking new information, to create other types of animals that are there outside in the environment.

Stem Cells Research: Gene Control video

1. Why did the German scientist decide to study the fruit flies at the larval stage?
2.How does the mother fly activate the control genes?
3. What is the role of control genes?
4.Which of the two species is closer to humans?

1.They did this in order to watch how they developed, although it was harder to study them because they were crawling on the food all the time. All sow, to observe which chemical message the mother left on the eggs.

2. The mother leaves on the eggs different chemical messages, that indicates which part of the egg will become the head and which will become the tail.

3. The "control gene's" role is to tell the cells of the body which organs and structures they should become, and when.

4. Actually, how the control gene works in both species is the same as in the human been. But the zebra fish's body plans are similar to humans.

Thinking about Biofuels

In the last weeks, we have been studing the pros and against biofuels. It has been a very constructiva assesment, and very interesting too. We have joined in pairs and each pair had a specific topic to expose to the class. I made partner with Mr. Ugarte and our topic was "Biofuel process of production". We choosed a video form the internet and exposed about the process. Our presentation was a little hard because of all the technical terms we needed to learn, but we failed in the volume of our voices. The other presentations were pretty good, they presented about the impact of producing biofuels on economy, what is the effect of producing biofuels on land used for food or cattle and biogas. We gained a lot of knowledge in our main topic and now we are able to have our own opinions and diiscuss about it.

Graphic Novel Analysis

Graphic novel analysis CLICK HERE!!

Biofuel process of production

Biofuel is considered to be the most pure and the easiest available fuels on the planet. One of the key features of biofuels is that they are better than other forms of fuels like petrol or diesel that is manufactured by most of the big oil manufacturing companies.

Ethanol comes from:
-Corn
-Barley          Starchy Crops
-Sorghum

Celulosic Material

-Citrus

Sweet Crops        -Sugar Beets

-Sugar Cane

-Switch Grass       Plant Material
-Wood Pulp   

Biofuel Process of production (www.esru.strath.ac.uk)

The process of manufacturing biofuel can be classified in the following stages.

Filtering: In this process, waste vegetable oil is filtered to remove all the food particles. This process generally involves warming up the liquid a little. After warming up the liquid, it can be filtered with the use of coffee filter.

Removing of water: All the water contained in the residual gangue has to be removed which will make the reaction faster. The water can be easily removed by making the liquid boil at 100 degree C for sometime.

Titration: This process is carried out to determine the amount of lye that would be required. This process is the most crucial and the most important stage of biofuel manufacturing.

Preparation of sodium methoxide: In this process, methanol is mixed with sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide. In most of the cases, the quantity of methanol used is generally 20 percent of waste vegetable oil.

Heating and mixing: The residue is heated in between 120 to 130 degree F after which it is mixed well. It should be remembered that process should be done carefully avoiding splashing of the liquid.

Settling and separation: After mixing the liquid, it has to be allowed to cool down. After the cooling process, the biofuel will be found floating at the top while the heavier glycerin would be found at the bottom. The glycerin can be easily separated by allowing it to drain out from the bottom. The person is left over with pure biofuel which can be used for various purposes.

http://biofuel.org.uk

For more information, click here!

The kite runner: Chapters 5-7

Study Questions

Chapters 5-7

1)    Explain why winter is Amir’s favourite season.
Because is the best time of the year toi fliught kites, and the kites tournament is coming in this season.
2)  Discuss the aftermath of the kite-fighting tournament, and assess Amir’s initial reaction to Assef’s attack on Hassan. Why does Amir decide not to help Hassan?
Because he wasn't that brave to deffend Hassan, and gets interested in what Assef sais about their relation between him and his servant.
3) Do you think Hassan knows that Amir witnessed the rape? Explain. What does Amir’s behaviour in the aftermath of the rape indicate about him?
I believe Hassans knows, because after this episode, their relationship changed, although only Hassan was the victim and Amir was, suposedly, not there.
4) Analyze the metaphor comparing Amir and Hassan’s interaction to the game of  “insect torture.” What is the “other face” Amir sees when he asks Hassan if he would eat dirt for him?
Amir realize that Hassan is a true friend of him, because he would make everything for him, although they both knew that Amir wouldn't.
5)  What emotions does Amir experience before the kite tournament? What is Hassan’s response? Refer to the simile “I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches the night before a major battle” (50)
Because he really wanted to win and demonstrate everybody that he was really good at something, and refered to himself as a soldier just before battle.

The kite runner: Questions 1-4

Study Questions

Chapters One-Four

1)       Compare and contrast Amir and Hassan, noting their backgrounds, how each boy interacts with his father, and the circumstances surrounding their birth.

Amir comes from a wealthy family, lives in an enormous house and has a very important father. Hassan isn't rich nor wealthy, his father work's for Amir's father. Baba is not very close to his son, instead he is kind of affective with Hassan. Both child hasn't mother, Amir's died in his birth, and Hassan's escaped after she gave birth.

2)       Discuss the origins of the ongoing conflict between Pashtuns and Hazaras. What effect might this have on Amir and Hassan’s relationship?

Amir was a Pashtun, they were the dominant ethnic group, and ruled over the Hazans, from where Hassan and his father belonged. Society maked the difference between both groups and as Amir and Hassan belonged each one to a group, they weren't supposed to be friends.

3)       How does Amir feel about Baba? Examine information about Baba, and discuss how Amir and Baba’s differences affect their relationship.

Baba was a visionary, he made his fortune taking a lot of risks and going against the popular opinion. As a child, he played football, was a marvellous player, he was alsow strong so others boys shouldn't bully him. Instead, Amir was very skinny, other children bullied him, but Hassan protected him. He didn't played or liked football as his father did, he liked reading and writing poetry. This made Baba very disapointed and upset, and his son noticed, to the point that he thought that his father hated him for "killing" his mother in the birth.

4)       What does Baba say is the only sin? Explain his theory and whether Amir is able to understand it.

The only sin that exists according with Baba is to steal, to steal freedom, rights, life. Amir isn't able to understand his father's reflection, so he proceeded to explain it better. With the second explanation Amir is able to understand, as he said that when you killed someone, you stoled his life, his wife's right to a husband, his son's right to a father.

5)       Examine Baba and Ali’s relationship. How is Amir’s relationship similar to theirs? What impact do their ethnic backgrounds have on these relationships?

Baba and Ali had a similar relationship with Amir and Hassan. They were rised together as brothers, both Baba and Amir were Pashtuns as Ali and hassan were Hazans. Both Baba and his son never tought their partners as friends, although they had all the characteristics that friends had, and this was because of they ethnicity.

6)       Discuss the significance of Hassan’s favourite book, the Shahnamah?

This was one of the main activities they had at that time. Hassan admired one of the sotries were a character cried his enemy after he killed him, and was impressed because as his enemy was his son, he overcomed their rivality, they loved each other.

7)       Assess the role Rahim Khan plays in Amir’s early life.

He was more affective than hgis real father, and supported him in his decisions, like writing the short story, Rahim encouraged him to keep going.

Writing Task

Language in Singapore, is it a problem?

Entering in to the roots of Singlish 

   I've travelled through different countries for the past three months, and I had never found such a mix of cultures like here in Singapore. I went to eat to the coast and found myself immersed in a soup of different dialects. So I decided to interview someone who worked in the shore, and founded Shabil-Ash, a local fisherman. He told me he was an Indian descendant; his grand father arrived as an immigrant 75 years ago. I asked him about the peculiar dialect he specked, and answered “is Singlish, a mixture of English and other languages”. I wanted to get deeper in this issue, and asked “Can you identify, while speaking Singlish, if someone is Indian, or Chinese, or Malaysian?” Shabil said “of course, but sometimes is harder with the more ancient descendants”. “And how you recognize them?” I was almost forced to ask. “By their different dialects they use sometimes, for example, Chinese people end their phrases with funny terms like “lah”, “leh”, and “mah”. Sometimes is harder to understand them, but we make the effort.” Whit this information I was satisfied, so I left him with his net and his boat and travelled downtown. There, I realized that there were all kind of religions, but they still remained as the original, there wasn’t any mixture as I expected. Buddhism, Taoism, Muslims, Hindus and even Catholics, all of these different religions and more can be found in the same street. Chinese temples in a corner and a Christian church down the road. I was amazed with such a variety of cultures and religions, and how they convey. If someone comes for holydays, you will feel lost with this peculiar language at the beginning, but the knowledge you will gain justifies the effort. I strongly suggest this destination if you are a cultural tourist, because you have a wide variety of cultures in a 581, 5 km² country.

Glogger

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Diary entry-Oral activity

April 15th, 2013

Today I want to express my thoughts on video games. They are very entertaining, but very harmful too. They gets us addicted and they can make us lose the perception of what is real and what is fictitious. Sometimes this misperception of reality could lead gamers to death. Nowadays gaming has reached a very high place in our daily living, to the point that everyone has at least one kind of video game console in their house. We are able to jump from the safety of our warm coach in middle of our room, to an exotic world full of fantastic creatures, and being inside of a warrior from other word. This seems to be very striking, and it is, I have to admit it, but it is as vicious as smoking cigars.

I'm preety sure that this affects people who surround me, such as my family,my brothers and my friends. The other night, I stayed on John's house and we played "Prince of Persia: sands of time" all night long, and the next morning, when I arrove home, he texted me telling me that "when he dropped a sandwich after playing this game, he ‘twitched’ his finger as he tried to retrieve it with his console.” Then I thought that it had probably been related with last night. Here we can clearly appreciate that one of my friends tried to “revert” time as the video game he was recently playing, something impossible in our world but reachable in fantastic worlds. And there are lots of similar cases, where people try to use video game’s tools in real life. Gamers get so addicted that they start to think that real world is in video games, and they live in a fantasy, so they feel the necessity to play games to “live” in their game. So, they get all the way around, and reality for them is completely confused, and they don’t want to stop playing, because they feel like they are in their real lives, and get so obsessed that it leads to aggresivity, step aside from society, and in very extreme cases,but luckily the least of them, madness and death. I'm afraid that someone I know could get so addicted that couldmake something wrong.

Video Game Addiction

Subtopic: Misperception of reality.
Text type: Journal
Sources: http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/harmful-effects-of-video-games-5618.html
               http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/21/fantasy-and-reality-can-gamers-tell/
               http://cameroncorniuk.hubpages.com/hub/viudeogameaddiction

Advertising quote analysis

“Advertising is everywhere you look, whether it is in the newspaper you pick up daily or on that billboard you see while driving down the highway. Some people may say that they are not in fact influenced by the advertising that is thrown at them each day, and that they do not fall into it, but everyone does.”

I think that everyone is influenced by advertising, maybe in different ways or different levels. In the decisions we make daily, what are we going to eat, dress, buy, how we are going to look, our hair style, what are we going to say, everything has an influence, because advertising is a mirror of society. Maybe a stereotyped society, but at the end, is what we want to reach. But why we want to reach that stereotyped image? Because everybody else wants, and if we reach that first, we feel better than everyone else. Some people may say that they are not influenced by  any type of advertising, but that's not completely true. The clothes they are using,  the style they prefer, maybe what they are eating, all that little details have been influenced, maybe in a very little scale, by advertising.


So then, does advertising influence the decisions we make daily? Yes it does, and we can't avoid it, because advertising shows us how we should be, behave, what to at, how to dress ourselves, and we follow that models because if we don't, we are different. But why being different is bad? Because the society doesn't  leave others to be different, and if someone tries to be different, society pulls them back.

BlackBerry BOLD 990o

OREO: Whisper Fight-AD analysis 

I will base my analysis in the following 10 questions:

What product or service is the commercial trying to sell? 

Where was the commercial set? 

Who was in the commercial?

 What objects were in the commercial? 

What happened in the commercial? 

What is the target group?

 What is the message? 

What are the aural and visual techniques?

Do you find celebrity endorsement? 

Does the ad respect the governmental policy of the country?

About the TV commercial, they are trying to sell the OREO cookie, and they make people choose a position between which part of the cookie is better, so they caught more attention. The AD makes people be divided in 2 groups, and they use social media like twitter to participate in the contest, so more people is interested and they grab more audience.

The set of this TV commercial is a library, where people goes to study, ,learn, inform themselves, so the ambient must be very quiet, as people whisper to communicate. The contest starts with two friends, probably, which one of them asks to the other which part of the cookie is better, all of these whispering. So they start discussing and the conversation transforms in a brutal fight and everyone is involved, but there are no shouts, only whispers, although the situation is a total disaster. People start fighting with chairs, lamps, they throw themselves down stairs, firemen arrive to the fight, then the cops, whispering for their megaphone. Is kind of ironic, because people is not supposed to shout in a library, but they fight and destroy it. 

The target group is people who uses social media, so they can share their opinion and catch the attention of more people. The message given by this AD is that people have a different position of which part of the cookie is better, so you must defend your opinion. They use some techniques like repetition, as the main words they mention is "cookie" and "cream", so the audience gets the words in their minds. They also use the promotion, as they make audience participate in the contest to choose a position. 

The commercial doesn't disobey any law stated by the Enforcement Policy Statement, but in my opinion, the AD promotes violence, riots, criminal behaviour, between other issues. They have certain responsibility in the consumers behaviour, as the AD is been watched in every TV. 

Summarising, the AD's most important element is the message thy try to express, and how people catch it. In this case some people could think that you should fight in a brutal way to make others change their decision, so they must be very careful in how they express their message.