07 November 2007

Halloween



Each year, on the last night of October, millions of children across the world dress-up in costume and take to the streets for a spooky dose of Trick or Treat fun.




Origins of Halloween


Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death
On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.




Modern traditions


The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.




Credits:


Text: Wikipedia


Photo: Google

12 September 2007

iPhone



The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and sold by Apple Inc.iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player (iPod), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail.It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. User input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone has been available since June 29, 2007 in the United States from Apple Retail Stores and the Apple Online Store.

Functions:

Phone
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions.Also the iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail.A ringtone feature, allows users to create ringtones from purchased iTunes music.


Camera
The iPhone features a built in 2.0
megapixels camera on the back for still digital photos, but not video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and send by e-mail photos.


Multimedia
The layout of the music library differs from previous
iPods,with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations.

As the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films.


Web connectivity and e-mail
The iPhone has built-in
Wi-Fi, with which it is able to access the World Wide Web (througth a wireless network) via a modified version of the Safari web browser. There has also been some criticism stemming from the iPhone's inability to download iTunes content wirelessly.But iPhone doesn't suport Flash or Java tecnology.


Software

OS X
Apple has confirmed that an optimized version of the
Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) runs on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained.


Applications
There are several applications located on the "Home" screen. The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime.
This is the Microsoft iPhone, jajajaja (it's a joke)

Credits:
Information:http://www.apple.com/es/
Image:http://pocketpccentral.net/smartphone/apple/iphone.htm
Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRKIDdIaFyE

07 September 2007

Calvin and Hobbes

History


Calvin and Hobbes is a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson, following the humorous antics of Calvin, an imaginative six-year old boy, and Hobbes, his energetic tiger.The strip is vaguely set in the contemporary Midwestern United States, on the outskirts of suburbia, a location probably inspired by Watterson's home town of Chagrin Falls, Ohio.The broad themes of the strip deal with Calvin's flights of fantasy, his friendship with Hobbes, his misadventures, his views on a diverse range of political and cultural issues and his relationships and interactions with his parents, classmates, educators, and other members of society.Because of Watterson's strong anti-merchandising sentiments, almost no legitimate Calvin and Hobbes merchandise exists outside of the book collections.
Characters
Calvin: Named as theologian John Calvin, Calvin is an impulsive, sometimes overly creative, imaginative, energetic, curious, intelligent, and often selfish six-year-old, whose last name the strip never gives. Despite his low grades, Calvin has a wide vocabulary range that rivals that of an adult as well as an emerging philosophical mind, implying that he comes from a naturally literate family.

Hobbes: In the classic comic tradition of sidekicks, Hobbes represents Calvin's potential maturity and externalized conscience.From everyone else's point of view, Hobbes is Calvin's stuffed tiger.From Calvin's point of view, however, Hobbes is an anthropomorphic tiger, much larger than Calvin and full of his own attitudes and ideas.He is named as the philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

Calvin's Family: Calvin's mother and father are for the most part typical Middle American middle-class parents. Like many other characters in the strip, their relatively down-to-earth and sensible attitudes serve primarily as a foil for Calvin's outlandish behavior.

Susie Derkins: She's the only important character with both a first and last name, is a classmate of Calvin's who lives in his neighborhood. In contrast with Calvin, she is polite and diligent in her studies, and her imagination usually seems mild-mannered and civilized.

Credits:

Information: www.Calvinyhobbes.com and Wikipedia
Images:Google

04 September 2007

Antonio Puerta



He was a spanish football player of Sevilla c.f. who was died last 28th of august.

He was born at November 26th of 1984, and he lived all his short life at Sevilla.

He played at inferior categories of the team.
He won a few of trophies, including two UEFA cups and One Europe Supercup. His Goal against Schalke 04 let Sevilla won 5 tournaments in a row.
Last august 25th he had a heart attack in Sevilla-Getafe match. He was move to Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocio ICU.

Three Days later he died at the hospital because he had an ARVD(Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy/Dysplasia.
He was going to have a baby in a month.

Credits:
Wikipedia

27 August 2007

Norway



I'm going to tell you my travel in Norway

Itinerary:

I flew to oslo (Norway's Capital) and i was there for 1 day, then i had dinner in hard rock cafe and i visited a big park with monuments.

Next day I went by train from Oslo to Bergen de second important city. In Bergen we visit the fish market and the Hanseatic houses. We were there for two days, and the last day we rented a car and we start our long travel by car.

We stopped in a few of villages and we slept at woodhouses.

Three days later, after our adventura by car, we arrived to Trondheim, the third important city of norway, where we visited the beutiful church and we walked at the city.

In Trondheim, we took a night train to Bodo,passing the polar circle, there we rent other car and we pass by Ferry to Lofoten Islands.

Lofoten are a few of Beautiful islands with lovely landscape. we stayed for two days at Lofoten and tne we went to Andenes to do a whale Safari.

The whale safari was wonderfull 'cause we saw four whales.Next day we went to evenes airpoert, we took a plane to Oslo, at the Oslo's airport, we took a plane to Valencia.


My Personal Opinion:

Norway is a beutiful country, it is like Pirineos, all the country is full of mountain, valleys and waterfalls. I liked this country very much. And I recommend to everybody to visit this fantastic Country.


Bye Bye



Credits:

My personal adventure

07 August 2007

Crazy Summer News

Pet camel kills Australian woman while trying to have sex.

An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex.The 10-month-old male camel — weighing about 150 kilograms — knocked the woman to the ground, lay on top of her, then exhibited what police suspect was mating behavior.

Russian wife set fire to his ex husband's penis.
A woman lit fire to the penis of her ex husband while he was sat seeing nude the television and drinking vodka.The woman, called Anna, get drunk her ex husband, sprayed it with alcohol and tried to burn it with a match, but she couldn't 'cause the alcohol evaporated rapidly.At second attempt, Anna used a newspaper as torch and managed to light fire to the penis of her ex husband.

Doctors extract a pencil of the head of a German after 55 years.
A group of doctors has extracted of the head of a 59-year-old German woman departs from a pencil that her has caused during almost all her life migraines and nasal hemorrhages.Margret Wegner fell at the age of 4, when she was with the pencil in her hand.The pencil interfered across my skin and disappeared inside my head, has admitted Wegner.Fortunately for Wegner, the object did not touch vital parts of her brain, but it was near.

Credits
Pixel&Dixel

03 June 2007

Mallrats



Story
Mallrats is a 1995 film written and directed by Kevin Smith.
The film is about two boys that have broken with their girlfriends, and they want to recove them. They go to the mall of his village to try to recove one of their girlfriends. there it happens a lot of stories and events.
There they ask help to Jay and Silent Bob (two funny freaks) who make plans to recove TS's girlfriend.
At the end the two boys have their girlfriends.
Credits of the Film

-Directed by
Kevin Smith
-Produced by
Scott Daniel
James Jacks
Scott Mosier
Kevin Smith(Uncredited)
-Written by
Kevin Smith
Cast
-Jeremy London as T.S. Quint
-Jason Lee as Brodie Bruce
-Shannen Doherty as Rene Mosier
-Claire Forlani as Brandi Svenning
-Jason Mewes as Jay
-Kevin Smith as Silent Bob
-Ben Affleck as Shannon Hamilton
-Joey Lauren Adams as Gwen Turner
-Renee Humphrey as Tricia Jones


My opinion

I think mallrats is a very funny film and i enjoyed very mach with Jay and Silent Bob. And i want watch the next film "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"




Credits

Saint Valentine's day



Every February, across the world, presents,candy, flowers, and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.


History


Valentine's Day started in the time of the Roman Empire. In ancient Rome, February 14th was a holiday to honour Juno. Juno was the Queen of the Roman Gods and Goddesses.

Lives of young boys and girls were separate. However, one of the customs of the young people was name drawing. On the festival of Lupercalia the Roman girls names were written on papers and put into jars. Each young man had to draw a girl's name from the jar and then be partners until the end of the festival with this girl.

My opinion

I think that give presents to the person what you love, is right, but i think we should do it every day.Also i think that is a good tactic of the department store.


Credits:



25 March 2007

Exchange with Carcassonne



The exchange:


For Five years ago aur school is doing an exchange with the french school Grazailles.

In this exchange participate girls and boys of 2nd of ESO.This is a cultural and academic exchange, with that the kids enjoy a lot.


Our Exchange:


Hi! I'm going to tell you about our(of my class) exchange with our french friends.

I had a french girl called Camille in my house for one week.

Her class arrived by Bus Thursday 8th of March and we gave them the welcome with an aperitif made by our families.

Next Day we went to school and we went to Oceanografic of Valencia. We returned to home and at the afternoon we met with our friends (spanish and french) and we pass the evening in La Canyada.

At the weekend we met a lot with friends and we went to the beach, to Valencia and to La Eliana with friends.

Monday we went to the natural park of La albufera, but we didn't enjoy it a lot because it starts raining and we can't ride in boat to visit the lake.

Tuesday we went to school and we pass the day there, we made workshops and we play games.

Wednesday we went to valencia to watch the "mascletà" and for visit the old part of valencia.

Thursday french class returned to Carcassonne and we said "au revoir"(goodbye).


Credits:



And my own experience

Second Life



Second Life is like a virtual 3d world created by Linden Lab, a downloadable client program enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars.

Residents can explore, meet other Residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and more other things that you can do at the real life.Actually Second life has more than 4.500.000 of "Residents".


History of Second life:

Second Life was founded by former RealNetworks CTO Philip Rosedale through Linden Lab. The initial alpha test version, named LindenWorld, was made available in 2002 to Residents with content creation experience, and the beta version was made publicly available in 2003.


Number of "Residents":


October 18, 2006 — 1 million registered accounts.
December 14, 2006 — 2 million registered accounts.

December 29, 2006 — First occurrence of 20,000 concurrent Residents.

January 28, 2007 — 3 million registered accounts.

February 1, 2007
— First occurrence of 30,000 concurrent Residents.
February 24, 2007 — 4 million registered accounts.


Cost:


In second life you can create a free account, but if you want to buy a house you must create a pay account.


Credits:


04 March 2007

Las Fallas



Las Fallas is a typical valencian festival.In honour of San Jose pattern of carpenters.
The origins of Fallas are very simply,a simply burning of remains of carpenters workshop.But Valencian People has turn it in a popular festival around the world. Since 15th of March Until 19th, Valencia is a continuos party.


Elements of the Festival
- Fallas
There are monuments of 25 or 30 metres that contain actuality themes.There are 386 Fallas at the moment. The Falla is set at 15th of March at the street, and there are burnt at 19th.

- Mascletaes
There are a noisy and rhytmical composition of Potents Bangers


Fallas Week
-15th of March: "The Plantà" this is when the fallas are placed.

-16th and 17th of March: In this two days in valencia there are a

"ofrenda", this is when the falleros give flowers to the virgin of

Valencia.

-18th of March: The night of fire or " Nit del Foc" In this day a

lot of people visitors and valencians go to the old bed of the
river turia to watch a majestic firework display.

-19th of March: "La Cremà" is when the fallas are burned.

Credits:
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallas
http://www.hojadigital.com/images2006/fallas2006/falla-nou-remate-conjunto1w.jpg

02 February 2007

Bram Stoker's Dracula



Is a 1992 horror/romance film produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
A young lawyer (Jonathan Harker) is assigned to a gloomy village in the mists of eastern Europe. He is captured and imprisoned by the undead vampire Dracula, who travels to London, inspired by a photograph of Harker's betrothed, Mina Murray. In Britain, Dracula begins a reign of seduction and terror, draining the life from Mina's closest friend, Lucy Westenra. Lucy's friends gather together to try to drive Dracula away.


Cast:
- Gary Oldman as Count Dracula
- Winona Ryder as Mina Murray & Elisabeta
- Anthony Hopkins as Professor Abraham Van Helsing
- Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker
- Richard E. Grant as Dr. Jack Seward
- Cary Elwes as Lord Arthur Holmwood
- Billy Campbell as Quincey P. Morris
- Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra
- Tom Waits as R.M. Renfield
- Monica Bellucci as Dracula's Bride
- Michaela Bercu as Dracula's Bride
- Florina Kendrick as Dracula's Bride
- Jay Robinson as Mr. Hawkins


21 January 2007

The Greenhouse Effect


The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earth’s average temperature would be about 60ºF colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases.

The greenhouse effect is important. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.

Credits:Google & Wikipedia

04 January 2007

Christmas in Spain



Christmas in spain is totally a religious holiday unfortunately.

In Spain we have a few of important days.

The first important day chronologically is the day of the drawing of the lottery. When a lot of people wait for obtain monay and make them rich.

Many children receive presents of Santa Claus but it isn't a very typical thing of here.
The presents of Santa are given in Christmas eve (Nochebuena).

In Spain the typical food is Turron and mazapan. And a lot of people in their houses overcoat the churches have a small representation of the village of Belen.This little representation is called Belen.

More important days are:

New Year Eve(Nochevieja)
Is cellebrated in December31st. This day is the last of the year, and a lot of people, go to a party, to celebrate the new year. Is a tradition that at 12 p.m, all the people eat twelve grapes while in the TV ring the bells.

New Year Day
Is the first day of the newly begun year in January 1st. In Spain we eat with aour familys but if you want to eat in a restaurant you'll have very difficult, because a lot of places are closed

The Wise Men's Day
Is in January 6th.This is the best day for a lot of people, but overcoat for children.In the night of January 5th the 3 wises men leave the children presents. In the 5th of January there is a procession of the 3 wises men where they throw sweets to the children and the grandmothers.When you are a kid yout have to write a letter to the three wises men putting everything what you want and giving it to the page boy of your favourite Wise.
CREDITS: Google Wikipedia And ME

03 January 2007

Christmas in other countries



LEBANON
In Lebanon, families plant seeds of grain in small pots a month before Christmas. When Christmas arrives they have little pots of green to place around the Christmas Cave and their Christmas Tree. The Christmas Cave holds the nativity scene of Jesus's birth.




AUSTRALIA
In Australia, Santa's sleigh is pulled by eight white kangaroos. Christmas dinner is eaten outdoors and is followed by a visit to the beach or a game of cricket.



UKRAINE
In the Ukraine, Father Frost visits all the children in a sleigh pulled by only three reindeer.
He brings along a little girl named Snowflake Girl. She wears a silver blue costume trimmed with white fur and a crown shaped like a snowflake
.


Credits: Wikipedia, Google, Youtube