Vocabulary Trends

http://www.oup.com/elt/global/products/headway/advanced/b_vocabulary/unit03/hwy_adv_unit03_1/

Vocabulary Self-esteem

http://viewer.zoho.com/docs/sHRxa

Vocabulary Honesty the best policy

Vocabulary Adictions

Modern Day Addictions Issue 9 Home Page

Word Power: Words to talk and write about addictions Words and Expressions addiction to be addicted to addict addictive   to be (get)hooked on to kick a habit to overcome an addiction Examples: Internet addiction is a problem. He is addicted to computer games. He is a real television addict. Gambling can become addictive.   She is hooked on gambling. He smokes, but he wants to kick the habit. It is difficult to overcome an addiction. He's a pachinkoholic. He tried to overcome this addiction, but it's hard to break the habit.   I think she's a chocoholic. She seems addicted to chocolate.   She is definitely a shopaholic. It is clear she is hooked on shopping. Using suffixes (word endings) to make nouns: You can use the endings -oholic or -aholic to say a person is an addict. alcoholic workaholic shopaholic webaholic chocoholic You can use the ending -ism to name some addictions. alcoholism workaholism shopaholism webaholism Some adjectives used to describe an addict: addicted to compulsive dependent (on) hooked on - addicted to Examples: He is addicted to the Internet. She is a compulsive shopper.   He is dependent on alcohol. She's hooked on chocolate. Return to: Modern Day Addictions | Issue 9 | Home Page TOPICS Online Magazine - ©1997-2007 - Sandy and Thomas Peters - topics mag@gmail.com

The ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross

The 186 National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies together constitute the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

The mission of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement:

• To prevent and alleviate human suffering wherever it may be found,
• To protect life and health and ensure respect for the human being, in particular in times of armed conflict and other emergencies,
• To work for the prevention of disease and for the promotion of health and social welfare,
• To encourage voluntary service and a constant readiness to give help by the members of the Movement, and a universal sense of solidarity towards all those in need of its protection and assistance.

In pursuing its mission, the Movement shall be guided by its Fundamental principles: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, Universality.

The Red Cross is an organization that follows the principles of neutrality in any conflict and defends and protect the human rights.

This organization is also present in Costa Rica since long time ago, the organization has participation in different functions of our society, like save people from car accidents, help people in natural catastrophes like floods, mudslides, earthquakes, hurricanes and other situations, also the bring the service of emergency transport in cases that it deserve it.

We can say that this kind of organizations bring peace and safety to our society, it bring peace and conformability in the streets. So if you think that you can help with this organization you should do it because in other time you may need the help and they are going to give it to you.       

Microfinance’s

What is microfinance?

Microfinance is a type of banking service that is provided to people without job or low-income individuals or groups who, otherwise, would have no other opportunity of gaining financial services. Ultimately, the goal of microfinance is to give low income people an opportunity to become self-sufficient by providing a means of saving money, borrowing money and insurance. (Include the source used to get this quote).

Micro financing is not a new concept. Small microcredit operations have existed since the 70s. Although most modern microfinance institutions operate in developing countries, the rate of payment default for loans is surprisingly low - more than 90% of loans are repaid. 

Microfinance brings the power of credit to the grassroots by the way of loans to the poor, without requirement of collateral or previous credit record. Experience shows that microfinance can help the poor to increase income, build viable businesses, and reduce their vulnerability to external shocks. It can also be a powerful instrument for self-empowerment by enabling the poor, especially women, to become economic agents of change.

Poverty is multi-dimensional, and by providing access to financial services, microfinance plays an important role in the fight against the many aspects of poverty. Access to credit allows poor people to take advantage of economic opportunities - for their homes, their domestic environments and their communities.

For instance, income generation from a business helps not only the business activity expand but also contributes to household income and its attendant benefits on food security, children's education, etc. Moreover, for women who, in many contexts, are secluded from public space, transacting with formal institutions can also build confidence and empowerment. 

University fest

GOES                                                                                           August 15th, 2010

Gobierno Estudiantil

ULACIT

Dear GOES:

        One of the main goals of this university is to create leadership between their students; the activity organized by you is a really good example of what the students are capable to do.

The University Festival was for me a really nice experience because it allowed me to develop one skill that not in all places I have the opportunity to develop. The leadership is a skill that is really appreciate by the companies nowadays, and the university fest is a great chance to improve it.

My classmates of English III and I created a simulation of one TV show program that is really entertained. We recreated our own version of “Who wants to be a millionaire?”, however we didn’t have the money to pay for the prizes so, we thought in change the prizes, as a result instead of money we gave food. According to this the name of the show changed, now we called “Who wants to eat?”   

The organization was really difficult, but we could go ahead with the event. The show was a big success, we invited to others group of English III that were in our same schedule and everyone enjoyed the show a lot.

Finally I want to say thank you for create this kind of blocks in which the students can develop or improve skills that aren’t teach in the classrooms and are really important in life.

Greetings,

Javier Díaz Muñoz

Computer Science Student

English III

Privacy at work

Employees privacy

In these days one of the main questions that big companies ask themselves is to choose between security, effectiveness and economy or human rights, privacy and human development.

As global economies are brought together through the internet, new concerns are created for businesses. Several concerns have been raised regarding employee privacy while using company email or surfing the internet while at work. Each employee is given access to company issues computers and equipment, and give guidelines concerning the acceptable usage while accessing the company’s assets. This article will talk about why companies implement internet and email usage policies and the assumptions employees make about their privacy while at work.

Employers implement and monitor policies regarding internet and email usage in an effort to address the concerns that exist as part of the business. A couple of the concerns they give are; employees are paid to work to not surf the internet or that work email is not being used to offend other employees within the organization. “In lawsuits alleging sexual harassment or discrimination, judges have permitted into evidence inflammatory emails of a racist or sexual nature as well as email requests to a human resources director on how to avoid a wrongful termination claim when firing an older employee.” (Find Law, n.d., p. 1) With the fear of archived emails or internet use coming back to haunt them, companies implement policies in an effort to eliminate their commitments to future lawsuits.

            When employees begin working with an organization, understanding what types of communications can be monitored will be important to avoid future problems. Email, internet browsing, and even telephone conversations are the most commonly monitored communications. Employees make the assumption that their email, computer files, or internet use is private because the information is protected by a password. “If you're sending email at work, your boss can legally monitor it, and if your company becomes involved in a lawsuit, your adversary has the legal right to review it.

In summary there are a lot of implications in this topic because the employers are always going to be worried about how are the employees wasting their time, and the employees are always going to fight for his right to privacy.

References

FDIC (n.d.). Privacy Act. Retrieved Sept. 19, 2009, from http://www.fdic.gov/about/privacy/responsibilities.html

Find Law (n.d.). Email Privacy. Retrieved Sept. 19, 2009, from http://public.findlaw.com/internet/email-privacy.html

Self-esteem

Life is the most appreciated gift that we have, and is our duty to value and enjoy it every moment. Unfortunately, many people in our society does not see how valuable life is, how valuable every human being is in the world, and especially how value they are. This kind of problem is called a low self-esteem problem.

In the other side we have those that think they are the most important, the best, the only ones that make things good. This is also an issue because provokes a person becomes condescending. In my opinion people like this have a really high self-esteem problem.

Self-esteem issues have many origins, most of them related to experiences and traumas that people who suffer this issue had in past. This traumas and experiences lived in the past mark life of these people creating different kinds of complex that will compose the behavior of a people with a low self-esteem.

We have to remember that these experiences responsible of the complexes that a person with low self-esteem has are product of different society stereotypes, behaviors and conducts that sometimes we recreate.

People with low self-esteem suffer many types of rejections, emotional pain and misattributions. They are often bashful, reserved, reticent and timid; because of this behavior people thinks they are self-conscious or even condescending and judge before meet the person.

That is the reason why people who is victim of this issue should take actions to overcome their fears and defeat their disabilities.

Some advice that we I can tell to people with low self-esteem are that they have to value him or herself, they have to understand that they are unique; they are not less than anybody. Second one is to demonstrate him or herself that they can do anything and overcome any obstacle that can appear in life. Third one is to understand that a person who bother and ridicules other people has a huge necessity of affect and they only feel jealous or intimidate because of you.

In summary, the human been is a perfect machine, but the human soul is unique and value; everyone is important in the society and nobody is less than other.   

        

Innovation Week letter

San José, May 31st 2010

Miss Paula Brenes

Engineering Department

ULACIT

Dear Paula:

I hope you to be fine, my name is Javier Díaz and I’m a student of Computer Science here in ULACIT, the purpose of this letter is to congratulate because of the great success of the event of the last week in which, as I have understood, you were between the organizers.

 I want you to know that I went to two events, the first one was based in the Neuroscience technologies and how are these affecting the way in which we learn, and the other one was the Electro-acoustic music, and was related with the involving of the technology in music and how it affects and will affect the evolution of music. Both of them were really nice experiences and I learned a lot with them.

Also I would like to give you a piece of advice if you organize this activity again, and I hope it be, take into account the relevance of the impact that has the technology and the technology advances in the health and life style of each one of us and how can we develop a balance between the benefits of the technology and the actions that let us life as a real human bean with real human interactions.  

Thank you for all the effort and dedication that you put in this week.

Greetings

Javier Díaz Muñoz

Computer Science Student

ULACIT

The Mozart Effect

How can music affect our brain?

How does music affect one's intellect?

Music is said to affect the intellect of humans in several different ways. Specifically, it is said to affect infants more than any other age group. Music can improve learning skills, test taking skills, concentration, heartbeat, and relaxation. Music has been proven to offer several benefits for infants, young children, young adults, as well as for adults.

With all of this in mind, how can one connect music with intellect? Many recent research studies focus on theoretically proving the way in which music improves cognitive thinking. These studies show that early learning experiences determine which neurons will connect with other neurons and which ones will die off. Connections between neurons (synaptic connections) are largely related to adult intelligence. They increase at the fastest rate during the first six years of a human life. Music training is said to develop synaptic connections that are related to abstract thought. For this reason, the number of music lessons given at ages six and younger are dramatically increasing.
The right hemisphere of a human brain serves to process information in a spontaneous or intuitive way. 

Infants and adults respond to music in similar ways. Infants and adults were tested in order to examine any possible relationship between each group’s reaction upon hearing music. During the experiment, infants were found to immediately turn their heads towards the music when any was presented. Similarly, when the test was given to adults, they responded in the sameway. These tests show that the patterns of responses in both babies and adults are the same, concluding that the human brain reacts to pitch changes regardless of age. 

Bibliografía

Abierto. (2 de Agosto de 2010). Wikipedia.org. Recuperado el 21 de Agosto de 2010, de http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efecto_Mozart

An exercise on the Passive Voice

Please put the correct passive form into the box.

1. Many people begin new projects in January.
New projects _________________ by many people in January.

2. They called the customers yesterday afternoon.
The customers _______________ yesterday afternoon.

3. We will give you a discount if you buy 100.
A discount _______________ if you buy 100.

4. I have improved the presentation.
The presentation ___________ .

5. The president of the company is listening to his proposal.
His proposal ___________ to by the president of the company.

6. We have produced paper products since 1994.
Paper products ____________ here since 1994.

7. All employees will read the memo.
The memo ___________ by all employees.

8. My colleague sold the last one yesterday.
The last one ___________ yesterday.

9. At this moment our boss is speaking to Sarah about always arriving late.
At this moment Sarah to about always arriving late.

10. Many hospitals use our samples.
Our samples by many hospitals.

Intelligent environments

View more presentations from javdiaz.

The tipping Point

The tipping point

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The mozart effect

View more presentations from javdiaz.

Trends

The Social Networks Trend

Internet is one of the most used tools that mankind has developed. This  tool is actually used to chat, transfer files, enterprise applications, banking applications, shop, sell, and now meet people or be in touch with all the people that you know.

The best example of this  is the Social Networks, but what is a social network in  Internet?

A Social Network is a web based social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes," which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

There are  a lot of examples of these social networks such as   Facebook, Twitter, Tagged, Hi5, MySpace, Badoo.

Personally, the success of this trend is the spread factor. Thanks to  Internet Internet Social Networks have become one of the biggest trends in the global society.

But there are good aspects and bad aspects related to this trend.I will enumerate some of them. One positive aspect is the long distance communication among people. The increase of social interaction (even if the interaction is in a virtual way) improves communications among organizations, companies, and groups with everybody who is in the social network.  However, we have  some negative  aspects as the loss of real social interaction, the increasing fear to this real interaction among humans, the increasing number of obese people due to their lack of exercising, and the increase of  Internet addiction as well. Social  networks are very  useful depending on the way they are used, so it is up to us if we want to take advantage of this trend.

The Monasticism

Monasticism

Monasticism is a way of life in which the person goes far from  the outside world and dedicates his/her life to spiritual exercises. The word monasticism  comes from the Greek monos that means alone, according  to the explanation given in the last paragraph this complements the real meaning of the word.

 People who practice this way of life are called in the Christian tradition monks or brothers for males and nuns or sisters for women. The places in  which they live are called monasteries for monks and convents for nuns.

It is important to note that the Christian religion is not the only religion that has this kind of practice. Also religions like Buddhism has their own kind of monks and nuns; these are called Bhikkhu for males and Bhikkhuni for females. The real translation of Bhikkhu is “beggar”, this is because the Bhikkhus only live with the minimum of materials possessions.

  Another example of monasticism in different religions can be the Hindu monks; they are called Sannyasa,  as well as other religions  they offer  their votes to chastity, poverty,  and prayer.

In some monasteries or convents there is a big difference between the monastic life a century ago and the monastic life in the 21^TH century. One hundred years ago the monk used to live in castles with a minimum of external contact only dedicated to serve God and work for themselves because they said that the good that they provided to society was the prayer for all humans.

However, nowadays this situation has changed.  It is true that this kind of monasteries that I mentioned before still exists; but now monks and monasticism in general are more open to help society, to be an example but a practical example of life.

An instance of this is the Salesians monks and priests; they offer  their life, and votes for the young people and work for their  future and life.

 I think that this is the type of  monastic life that should be practiced because this helps to improve society and the life of many people that need it.            

Pronunciation TH

Here is a fun video to practice and understand better the TH sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o4EvvboXL4&feature=related

Grammar exercises - Adverbs or adjectives

Hi, here is a link in which you can practice the difference between adverbs and adjectives.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/adjectives_adverbs/adjective_adverb.htm

Also here is another link with a complete list of exercises of adverbs.

http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_grammar.htm

Job search letter

There is a good guide if someday you have to send a letter asking for a job.

Addictive personalities

Addictions have been a really common issue in our society for many years.  But now in the 21^TH Century, the misuse of technology, the lifestyle and the lost of society’s good values have created new addictions and strengthened others that have been in society for some time. In this column I will talk about addictive personalities from a personal point of view and how the lifestyle of current society has incremented the number of people that suffer from addictions.

Addiction is defined as “The habit of those who let themselves be dominated by the use of one or more toxic drugs or excessive fondness for certain games”, but for me, this definition taken from El Diccionario de la Real Academia Española does not involve a lot of addictions present in the world. But, how is the personality of an addicted person. I am going to take the example of a video game addict that I know. This person spends a minimum of 12 hours a day playing videogames, but he is wasting not only his time but also his money; he sacrifices his family, his friends, his life… This person was a great musician that renounced to music because of his addiction to videogames.   His friends have told him that he is wasting his life, his abilities and losing all what he loves, the people who love him; but he does not want to get rid of this addiction because he thinks that the situation is not so tragic: When he is out of his house, he feels anxious; he is not focused on anything but videogames; the only topic he talks about is the new game that he bought, the new level that he achieved or something about video games.

Like this guy, there are a lot of people with these afflictions, these symptoms, and these problems. But why does this happen? I personally think that currently people’s lifestyle, at least in the city, causes issues such as stress, trouble, an accelerated lifestyle, and all the bad practices that we have link these phenomena and the addictive behaviors. Here is when we have to start to reflect and think about the lifestyle that we have and if we are falling down into one addictive personality.    

Honesty is the best policy

The capacity to lie is unique to human beings, but personally it is not something that we should be proud of. Lying is an action that people do due to many reasons: maybe they are scared, want to escape from another lie, or avoid a problem … Although it is truly inevitable because of our nature, lying is not necessary.

In our daily life we live many different situations, and we interact with a lot of people; because of this, lying is also a really common action. I know that it is really difficult not to lie, but instead of that, we should avoid telling lies.

It is true that we can completely avoid telling lies, but for me there are some occasions when we must lie, not to hurt   but to be polite. For example, if someone asks you about his/her baby’s appearance, even if the baby is horrible, you should probably say the baby is beautiful.

  In school, high school, or university, honesty is really a must because.   Honesty is the best option no matter what the situation is; it is always better to say the truth because you can hurt someone if you lie. 

My autobiography

In this autobiography, I will write the most important events that have marked my life in a chronological order since the beginning of it until now.

Everything started on January 17^th of 1991 when at 4:00 a.m. a cold Thursday, the son of a telecommunication technician and an administrative assistant was born in a room of Adolfo Carit Eva Hospital. In this same year I was baptized in the Catholic Church of a little town in the suburbs of San Jose called Aserrí. Three years later, I was a really healthy child enjoying my childhood as all other kids. In that year my parents separated but surprisingly, my mother got pregnant of my sister and the next year I was the older brother in my family and my parents were together again. But then when I was five years old, my parents got divorced, also I entered the Sensinai pre-kinder in Aserri. Then next year after I graduated from pre-kinder, I started the Kindergarten in Manuel Hidalgo Mora Public School. In that same year, I finished the kindergarten and I moved to first grade in the same school. In first and second grade I always was a good student with high grades and good behavior. In the third grade I ran for class president and I won; this was my first government in the educational field. In September of 2000 I got sick of appendicitis so I had my first surgery. The next year, I was in fourth grade; I was the president of the class in that year too; also I entered the School Band playing the drum, beginning my background in music. In fifth grade I participated in a knowledge competition called “Antorcha” winning the first regional place, and again I was in the band. In 2003 (my sixth grade) I was the president of the Student Board of Elections in my school, I graduated from School and I passed the admission process of the Don Bosco Technical High School. In the 2004 I started my secondary education; in seventh grade I entered the high school band playing the trumpet; also I won the first place in the Technological Artistic and Scientific Fair EXPOTEC 2004 of the High School. Next year I went to Minnesota thanks to a cultural exchange between the Mahtomedi High School Band and the Don Bosco High School Band; in that same year I participated in the “Festival de la Luz” for the first time winning the second place in High School bands category. In the 2006 I participated in the first High School Choreography with live music in Costa Rica and won the best music choreography prize, I did the national exams and I passed them; also I could enter the specialty Computer Science that I wanted; finally in that year I participated for the second time in the “Festival de la Luz”. In 2007 I started my specialty and with that a new passion. Again I participated in the “Festival de la Luz” but in this time we won the first place. In the eleventh grade I participated in the election for the Student Council as a candidate winning the election and becoming the president of the High School, in that year I also won an Honorific Mention in the field of Computer Science and the Technological Innovation price because of my software APIH. In my last year of High School (2009), I went to Minnesota for the second time during a month; I also won the candidature for the Secretary position of an International Salesian Student Organization called “Movimiento Juventud”; I organized an activity called “Semana de la Juventud” more than 2000 people participate in. I did my professional practice in ITSInfocom and I got my first and current job there. Finally in that year I graduated from High School with a Medium Technician in Software Development. In 2010 I won a 100% scholarship at ULACIT and I started the major Bachelor in Computer Science.

Currently I’m working at ITSInfocom looking forward for becoming an Implementation Engineer and studying at ULACIT with a lot of enthusiasm, dreams to follow and battles to win.