martes, 24 de agosto de 2010
Vocabulary Adictions
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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:
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.
Microfinances
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.
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
Self-esteem
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
lunes, 23 de agosto de 2010
The Mozart Effect
The Mozart Effect
How can music affect our brain?
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.
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.
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 21TH 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.
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