Summertime

Just to remind you that on June 30th your marks will be posted:

- Online: Check our webpage  to get the link to your marks. Be patient with technology since the system tends to crash when everybody tries to log in at the same time, You'll only see '(no)apte/a', NP, NQ, but not your scores for each skill. Do you want to see them? Then ...

- EOI's notice board: At 12:00 p.m. we'll post  the scores for the five skills and your final mark.

On Thursday 30th classtime, I'll be available  to comment on your results if you need it -or just to say hello if you happen to pop in to see your marks.



And finally, I'd like to wish you a well deserved summer break , so I'll  leave you with  Summertime,  a popular jazz standard composed by George Gershwin in 1935, and sung by  Billie Holiday, together with these wonderful  summer scenes by  Jack Vettriano. Mmmmhh...Summertime...!

Past is history, future is a mystery, so whether I'll keep updating this blog from now on is something nobody, not even me, knows. Thanks for your attention and comments, and I do hope you continue your studies with us next September.

That's all, folks!

Classes are over, so the time has come to give you some final advice. This year, instead of the usual recommendations  (relax, read the instructions carefully, organise your composition, write slowly, 'dance' with your partners in the oral exam, etc.etc.) here's a list of the 10 things you should NOT do:



There are probably many more things you'd better not do at exam time -just be creative and try!- but the only one thing you should do is ENJOY it!

Thanks for your attention and patience, and ...
I wish you all the best

I, Robot

We'll be talking about science next week. It seems that, according to a recent study, robots have evolved to help each other, as a theory had already predicted.

• Read TRANSCRIPT
• Read WIRED SCIENCE: Robots evolve altruism, just as biology predicted.
• Take the "scientifically validated" ALTRUISM / EGOISM TEST to check whether your egoism is a problem or if you are taking altruistic behaviour too far. It's free, and when you finish (30 questions, take your time) you'll receive a short report including a graph and a personalised interpretion of your results. You want to know more about you? Then you'll have to pay -that's the catch!

So ... are then robots going to help us humans? Scary ...but seeing that some human beings can behave like robots, I wouldn't mind having a robot friend... not one like like HAL though, who was disconnected on suspicion of having killed two members of the crew... but that was an old, very primitive robot, not like the highly evolved machines we have now.

Walking on the Moon

After the conversation we've had today with the two groups, I'm repeating a post I sent last year . Not so many years ago, very few people would have questioned that Neil Armstrong had set foot on the moon -and those who did were considered a bit, err.. weird. Now in the internet/photoshop era manipulation is easy and, judging from what you said, the idea that the moon landing was a fake seems to have gained ground -or spreads easily at least.


After more than 40 years, the NASA released last year a new version of the original video of man's first walk on the Moon enhanced with the technology we have now. Here you'll see all the explanations, a kind of "making of " of the original live 1969 'home' video, courtesy of National Geographic.

However, some people think this is a hoax, and that nobody has ever set foot on the moon. Have a look at the arguments in favour of these (again!) conspiracy theories...

...which have also been easily debunked : The Guardian

By the way, yes, we went back to the moon after Apollo 11. TWELVE more astronauts walked on the moon in the subsequent Apollo missions (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17) . READ HERE (scroll down a bit) and HERE .

Has the internet made us all more skeptical? If manipulation works on both sides ... isn't it a bit of a paradox that we may be manipulated into thinking that we are not going to be easily manipulated?
Is Obama American? Is bin Laden dead? Is Elvis alive? Did Paul McCartney ever exist? If you believe, they put a man on the moon .....

Superman to renounce US citizenship

It seems that the all-American super-hero is turning into a super-rebel -it must be something in his diet, or an extra dose of green Kriptonite. This piece of news is not taken from the Onion network, nor is it any kind of April fool's joke.


**If you click on the CC button, you can activate 'Transcribe audio', which is an experimental service that uses speech recognition --BUT it does NOT always recognise it correctly.

• READ Los Angeles Times
  
• READ the Independent (British newspaper)
  

(**Some of the readers comments are certainly worth reading! )

Precisely now that the White House has released Barack Obama's birth certificate to put an end to the conspiracy theories that say that he's not American and therefore not eligible to be the President of the United States (Donald Trump, among others, being the main instigator).

• READ and WATCH the story at MSNBC (with a very sophisticated transcript system)
  

Lots of questions come to mind after reading these two apparently unconnected pieces of news like, what citizenship do you think superman is going to apply for? Having been born in Kripton, could he run for president of the United States? Could he be the president of the World?Now we know that Obama is definitely American, but could he still be the president if he chose to support BarÇa in the Champions league? Should some political leaders be sent to Kripton, and leave important matters to Superman?

***PS : Monday May 2nd update. Oh dear, the plot thickens. President Obama has confirmed the death of Bin Laden -if he ever existed. What's Superman going to say about this?

In the News

Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature
Taco Bell boasts zero environmental impact with their new menu which will rely solely on synthetic, lab-produced ingredients.
LEVEL: MEDIUM/EASY

KEY WORDS: ingredients, items, food synthesizer, tell the difference, labs, ground beef, initiative, helps reduce global warming, melt down, straws, wrapping, eating the garbage you produce.

- Also WATCH: Supreme Court Ruling Gives Fans The Right To Act Like Total Assholes At Games
The Court found that buying a ticket is license to boo, swear and throw beer at whomever fans please at a sporting event, on the grounds that anyone who doesn't like it can stay home, and those tickets pay for the players' salaries, so who are they to complain?
KEY WORDS: ruling, asshole, landmark, cut loose, celebrate the decision, unfairly removed from a stadium, bracing for a surge in jackass behaviour, oppose the decision.
LEVEL: DIFFICULT

- Also WATCH: Should unemployed Americans invest in new Apple computers? Panelists discuss how owning a top-of-the-line MacBook or an iPad 2 is actually essential to finding a new job. Detractors are left with no arguments.

KEYWORDS: little sign of recovery, the unemployed, rip off, tiny toy, tool, supporting innovation, overspending.
LEVEL: MEDIUM

**For your information, the Onion is a satirical newspaper founded in 1988 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Originally a weekly humor print publication targeting a local student population, The Onion is today a booming news organization known as America’s Finest News Source. More information Here.

**PS: Breaking Good News (no joke)

St. Jordi

For St. Jordi's week, a poem and a rose for you. In this case, the poem has no title and no opening line. You have to guess what the poem is about.

???????????????????????
.................................................
is like doing a jigsaw puzzle
of a million pieces
with a picture that keeps changing.
It's like getting lost in a foreign city
without a map.
It's like playing tennis without a ball,
like being an ant in a field of grasshoppers.
It's being an acrobat with a broken leg,
an actor without a script,
a carpenter without a saw,
a storyteller without a middle or an end.

But then gradually
it¹s like being out in the early morning
with the mists lifting.
It¹s like a chink of light under a door,
like finding the glove you were looking for,
catching the train you thought you were going to miss,
getting an unlooked-for present,
exchanging a smile.

And then one day it's like riding a bicycle
very fast downhill.

-Olivia McMahon-

Have you ever exprienced any of these sensations?
Any bets on what the poem might refer to ?

(Click on the red rose to get the answer)

Have a nice Easter holiday! Or "staycation" (stay at home+vacation, which is my case, but enjoying every bit of it!)

Sleepless?

Double beds used to be the norm for couples, but they aren't any longer. It seems that some people refuse to share their bed with their partners -it's a real nuisance to sleep with somebody who snores, for example, not to mention the neverending discussion about room temperature. Duvet for me? Sheets and blankets for you?


So if you don't want to get up on the wrong side of the bed, you'd better get a twin room (two separate beds) or two separate apartments, as kings and queens do -that would be my favourite. What about you?

• READ THIS If you want to learn more about sleep basics-problems, solutions, health benefits,etc
• or THIS if you want to know the connection between sleep and memory
• If you are a siesta lover, maybe you could take part in the annual siesta championship
• And if you want to delve into the world of dreams-types, theories and intrpretation- DREAM MOODS is your page.

Good night...
...and some music to go with it.



Sleepwalker, by The Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan's band. Jakob Dylan is Bob Dylan's son, much better than his father, to my mind.

Talking about body language, did you know that now you can control Gmail with your body?



Learn more (and give it a try) at gmail.com/motion

Or... could this possibly be one of these?

Lie Detector

We'll be talking about the senses and body language this week -you know all these signals and postures and gestures we do depending on our internal emotions and mental states.Body language is an important part of communication -it is said that it is 50% or more of what we are communicating. Sometimes we are aware of our body language, but most of the time we are not, particulary when we are lying. Do you often lie? Did you know that it shows in your face (or in your whole body) when you are lying? How good are you at detecting lies?

KEY WORDS: Deception (a false friend!), signs, the more... the more (lots of this sturcture), the catch is..., average, looks like. Are you getting the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Do you want to know the tell tale signs that will give you away when you are lying?

• Watch this video


• READ articles / vocabulary work dealing with LIES


• Are you a good liar? Try this TEST

So do you think you are a good liar/a good lie detector?