Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Ecoogler - every time you do a search, help save a tree
This is an ecologic searcher that works with Google, the only difference is that with every search you donate a symbolic leaf to plant trees in the Amazon and the rest of the trees in the world. It works just as Google and gives you exactly the same results. Donating a leaf is something symbolic, because each 1.000.000 of leaves represent a donation of trees to the Aquaverde association. These trees will be used to repopulate the Amazons and the forests worldwide. Ecoogler uses Google Custom Search technology.
Ecoogler shows the same results that google.com, so while looking for what you need you will be helping to repopulate the forests.
Ecoogler shows the same results that google.com, so while looking for what you need you will be helping to repopulate the forests.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
A Beautiful Lie
The video of this song was shot in the North Pole I think. This reveal that the band is worried about the changes of the world climate. Although the lyrics of the song don´t say it, I think that the message is that the time to act is now and if we don´t do nothing the world will changed more and more until to destroy our planet.
Coldplay-The Scientist
I chose this video because I think its incredible that he had to learn all the words in the wrong way to do it. As I see, this reflects perfectly his hardworking personality.
Referring to the song, its about a car accident he has and how he feels about it.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Amy Winehouse´s video
The song's lyrics
In this song she talks about an ended relationship and she says that she doesn´t understand why she cares about men that some day will go. I think that this song represents perfectly the kind of lyrics that she writes. I really love this song and the video is very simple and it shows that she is alone thinking about the last relationship. It´s not difficult to understand her letters but sometimes she uses some colloquial words that are complicate to not english people and some rude words.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Oasis
Since the first time Oasis played together they promised they were going to be the best. And then they set about proving it. They resisted doing things the way they were supposed to. They never sent a demo to a record company, knew that the supreme self-confidence and some classic songs would be enough to become big stars, and this is why I have always had great admiration for them.When Alan McGee saw them at a club in Glasgow they had no manger, no agent and no money. Just greatness. That day they signed his first recording contract and began for them a great musical career.
They entered in the book of records thanks to their music. Their record Definitely Maybe was the fastest selling debut in British history until 2002 when Arctic Monkeys, a group that I also love, removed the record. Their second album, (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, went straight in to number one and became the fastest selling album since Michael Jackson, and also managed to sell 20 million copies worldwide. They have won many prizes that very few groups have been able to achieve and above all a prize that says all about them, the BRIT AWARD: Outstanding Contribution to Music.
It is true they have always been very controversial. They have been dotted with numerous criticisms and they have said things which were later repented. I can say that on many occasions their behaviour has not been adequate but the truth is that as a band they are an example to follow for their confidence, for their popularity, for their songs, for their records and for their prizes.
SUPERSONIC
I chose this song because it is the song that launched them to fame. Noel Gallagher wrote this song the day before they submissised as his first single to the record. The song is basically a collection of nonsense lyrics written in a matter of minutes, just before the band entered the recording studios to record the track. I don't know if this song reveals something about their personality. I can only say that they are very mad and although they were beginners in the music, they seemed to be very confident in the video as if they were veterans.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Chris Martin
Chris Martin, Who has a baritenor voice,is the lead singer,the pianist and sometimes the guitarist of the popular band Coldplay.He has worked with lot of artists such as Jay-Z,who helped Chris to show her fascination with hip hop,or Nelly Furtado and he has written songs for lots of different singers.
Chris says that the band has influenced him most is the pop-band A-ha.There was a song of them that Chris can´t get out of his mind and he describes Morten Harket, the vocalist of the group, as the most disarming and beautiful man you will ever meet.The second band he consider as an influenced is U2. He told that their song "A Sort of Homecoming" is one of the first song he played for his unborn baby.Among others there are Oasis,Keane,The Police and Bob Dylan.
Apart from music, he has collaborated with charity doing a great deal of campaigning for Oxfam or travelling to poor countries. It seems that he is interested in politics too due to the fact that he was a vocal critic of President George W. Bush.
And about his personal life, his married to the actress Gwyneth Paltrow and they have a daughter,Apple,and a son,Moses.
So, as we can see, is a person who is really concentrate and happy with his work.
Chris says that the band has influenced him most is the pop-band A-ha.There was a song of them that Chris can´t get out of his mind and he describes Morten Harket, the vocalist of the group, as the most disarming and beautiful man you will ever meet.The second band he consider as an influenced is U2. He told that their song "A Sort of Homecoming" is one of the first song he played for his unborn baby.Among others there are Oasis,Keane,The Police and Bob Dylan.
Apart from music, he has collaborated with charity doing a great deal of campaigning for Oxfam or travelling to poor countries. It seems that he is interested in politics too due to the fact that he was a vocal critic of President George W. Bush.
And about his personal life, his married to the actress Gwyneth Paltrow and they have a daughter,Apple,and a son,Moses.
So, as we can see, is a person who is really concentrate and happy with his work.
System Of A Down
I'm going to talk about Serj Tankian, the singer of System Of A Down, a well-known rock and alternative metal band. This band was formed in Glendale, in California, but all the members have Armenian origins. Their grandparents survived the Armenian genocide that was commited by Turkey. They always like to express in their songs opinions about social problems and their consequences in the society. Indeed, they are a very respected group all over the world.
In this song, LONELY DAY, the singer is very sad and he's always repeating "it's the most lonely day in my life". Maybe the singer has broken up with his girlfriend so he's sad because he's alone.
This song may have been written when one of the members of the group had problems in his real life.
On the whole, I think the singer is a little bit depressed because of his situation.
lyrics:
Here's the video
In this song, LONELY DAY, the singer is very sad and he's always repeating "it's the most lonely day in my life". Maybe the singer has broken up with his girlfriend so he's sad because he's alone.
This song may have been written when one of the members of the group had problems in his real life.
On the whole, I think the singer is a little bit depressed because of his situation.
lyrics:
Here's the video
30 Seconds to Mars
They´re an alternative rock band. I like them very much because of the vocalist´s voice (Jared Leto) and the sounds of the guitars in their songs.
Jared Leto, the vocalist of the band, is an American actor too. Jared acted in TV shows and in several films. He´s a vegetarian and a songwriter too. All the members of the band want to change the way of the world, they want to stop the world climate change. The song "A Beautifull Lie" demonstrates it.
Although they´re not very popular they´ve been playing since 1998. This band began as an small project and they had several problems too. In the first year the two guitarists left the band but Jared Leto didn´t give up. He give the opportunity to Tomo and Solon who are the formers of the group nowadays.
From there Jared Leto´s mind changed and world climate became one of the objectives of the band. All the awards they received didn´t change the way of the group and in 2005 they did an album that contains this ideology. The title was "A Beautiful Lie". They didn´t want to do a normal CD, for this reason the videos that they made for the singles were original and new. One of them was shot in China.
To sum up, 30 seconds to Mars is the band which combine playing very good songs and trying to save the world: this is their best quality.
Jared Leto, the vocalist of the band, is an American actor too. Jared acted in TV shows and in several films. He´s a vegetarian and a songwriter too. All the members of the band want to change the way of the world, they want to stop the world climate change. The song "A Beautifull Lie" demonstrates it.
Although they´re not very popular they´ve been playing since 1998. This band began as an small project and they had several problems too. In the first year the two guitarists left the band but Jared Leto didn´t give up. He give the opportunity to Tomo and Solon who are the formers of the group nowadays.
From there Jared Leto´s mind changed and world climate became one of the objectives of the band. All the awards they received didn´t change the way of the group and in 2005 they did an album that contains this ideology. The title was "A Beautiful Lie". They didn´t want to do a normal CD, for this reason the videos that they made for the singles were original and new. One of them was shot in China.
To sum up, 30 seconds to Mars is the band which combine playing very good songs and trying to save the world: this is their best quality.
LauReL AiTkeN: The GoDfaTheR Of Ska
Laurel Aitken was born in Cuba in 1927 of mixed Cuban and Jamaican descent. He and his family settled in Kingston,Jamaica,in 1938.
His first job consisted in singing calypso music for visitors arriving to the island. He became a night club entertainer too.
In 1955 Aitken recorded his first singles,and they were very successful.
In 1963, Aitken moved to London, and here all mods,skinheads and another ska fans enjoyed his music during the last 40 years of the life of Laurel.
He died in 2005, by a heart attack, in Leicester, his last living place.
In conclusion,we can say that Laurel Aitken has been the most important figure of ska music.Also, he was the first black skinhead that was recognised, because in the 60´s being a black skinhead was considered wrong.
His first job consisted in singing calypso music for visitors arriving to the island. He became a night club entertainer too.
In 1955 Aitken recorded his first singles,and they were very successful.
In 1963, Aitken moved to London, and here all mods,skinheads and another ska fans enjoyed his music during the last 40 years of the life of Laurel.
He died in 2005, by a heart attack, in Leicester, his last living place.
In conclusion,we can say that Laurel Aitken has been the most important figure of ska music.Also, he was the first black skinhead that was recognised, because in the 60´s being a black skinhead was considered wrong.
Amy Winehouse
I´m going to talk about a famous English singer-songwriter called Amy Jade Winehouse born 14 September of 1983 in Enfield, London. The first time I listened to her music was on the MTV channel and the song was "Rehab". The truth is that I liked it so much that I decided to buy her cd "Back to black". A good decision I think because I love jazz and blues and she has an incredible voice. However, I have to say that I don´t like her attitude (she is always having problems with drugs, alcohol, depression and eating disorders) and I think that she probably would be criticised less if she left those kind of things at home because the polemic is not always good for her(besides the press is destroying her life). In fact, many people know about her because of her life and her strange and distinctive style like a pin-up and not because of her music. Unfortunately, she probably will have a short career if she continues living like this.
Anyway, I find her music really good and her lyrics very sentimental as she always talks about love and she express different ways of living it. Her first CD, called "Frank", was more personal than the second one that is more commercial and famous too. Besides, Amy has won practically all the music awards, including MTV awards, BRIT Award for Best British Female Artist, six Grammy Award and Ivor Novello Award twice for example.
The truth is that she started really early to show that music was the reason of her life. In fact, only when she was ten years old, she had a short-lived rap group called Sweet 'n' Sour with childhood friend Juliette Ashby. After, she worked as a "showbiz journalist" for the World Entertainment News Network but her boyfriend sent a demo of her voice to Island/Universal getting the chance to show her talent. Amy entered at number seven on the Billboard 200 in the United States and by October, the album got 5 platinum CD in the UK, making it the best-selling album of 2007 and the top iTunes album in the UK in 2007.
Apart from her succesful career, I think that the most important things in her life are love (she got married at the age of 24 with Blake Fielder-Civil ), family (her father is always with her trying to protect her) and her music. Likewise, she has demonstrated that she doesn´t care about what others say about her, but the bad side of this is that she is always offering a self-destructive behaviour and this is not good for her or her family. However she has stayed twice in a detox clinic and it seems that she tries to stop having drugs.
It´s clear that she is different from the rest of singers and she has triumphed,at least with her music. Nowadays, her husband is in jail but she has a lot of projects like singing with Pete Doherty (Kate Moss´s ex-boyfriend), making her next CD or a duet with George Michael.
Task: The life and music of ...
- Choose a singer or member of a music group
- Check out if s/he is on myspace
- See what information is available on him/her on wikipedia
- Use the information you’ve found to write about what you consider is important in his/her life and helps to make up his/her sense of identity
- Look for a video of one of his/her songs on youtube
- Copy the code you will see displayed in the Embed box (to the right of the video on the youtube page) and then create a new post on the class blog
- Give your post a title, click on the Edit HTML tab and paste the code you copied from youtube into your post
- Click on the Compose tab and now write about what you think the song and the video reveal about your chosen singer/musician’s personality
- Do a Google search for the lyrics of the song
- Make a link to the lyrics in your post by clicking on the link symbol in the toolbar of your post and pasting there the URL (address) of the web page you found
- Revise carefully what you’ve written before publishing your post and run a spell-check on it
- Next, write a comment on your classmates’ postings: say what you find interesting about the lives and music of the singers/musicians they chose.
- If you found any of the lyrics difficult to follow, say where you had problems
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Create a voki!
- Go to www.voki.com and sign in.
- Click on My Voki and then on create a Create a New Voki
- Click on Create New Scene
- Choose a character
- Customize your character
- Give it a voice using the model:
They call me .... because ... (think of a reason).
I love ... (think of something your character loves doing).
I hate ... (think of something your character hates doing)."
- Make sure you save your recording
- Choose a background and a player
- Click on save
- Choose embed in: Blogger and size: small
- Click on Get Code and copy the code
- Now create a new posting on the blog
- Paste the code in the Edit Html window to embed your Voki character in the posting
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
The positive and negative impact of new technology on my life
New technologies are very present in our diary lives. We use them many times in a day, so we really need these gadgets to do a lot of different things . But what are their impact on people's lives?
On the one hand, they're very useful in a lot of situations. For example, we can hear MP3's in the underground or in the bus when we're bored. Indeed, we can take them everywhere because they are not very big and we can keep them in the pocket. Moreover, new computers have permitted the development of programs which are used in lots of experiments. In fact, these experiments are important for the creation of new medicines which could save a lot of people. In addition, new computers help people to do work quickly. We can also use computers to buy things at home by the internet.
On the other hand, new technologies have many negative effects. Firstly, new technologies can destroy a few jobs because now companies prefer to use computers instead of human work. In some cases, new computers are more productive than people. Secondly, young people could become addict to new video-games (Play Station, Wii, XBox...) and pass everyday playing instead of going out to the park with other boys.
In conclusion, new technologies are very important for everyone because they have a lot of positive effects on human advance. However, there are still some negative effects but on the whole they are less important than positive effects.
Game time for fast finishers
Those of you who have finished the assessed writing task have won some bonus time for yourself. Try out these games and resources:
- A word game where, if you win, you donate rice to the United Nations World Food program
- A very addictive and crazy, impossible quiz. It takes time to load but it's worth it.
- On the BC Learn English site, choose Spelloween a fun game that will improve your spelling
Saturday, February 23, 2008
The positive and negative impact of new technology on my life
Nowadays the new technology is growing extremelly fast and the influence that have in our lives is getting bigger and bigger. Most of the times we use the technology because this has some positive things although sometimes not.
On the one hand, the new technology help us in our everydays life. It´s useful and fast. For example, 20 years ago some people only had a computer in their hauses; now, in comparison, all the people have at least one commputer (in some cases 2 or3). This is the clearest example in the growth of the technology.
On the other hand, there are some negative points. Firstly, Internet, Chats and Messenger although there are a way of communication in some cases you don´t really know who are you talking with. Secondly, it´s a place where someones can steal your money. You have to be very careful and "click on" in the right place. If you don´t you will have a problem. Thirdly, if you connet all the times to this new technology you can have health problems. Your eyes won´t be grateful.
To sump up, the technology can help us to have a better life improving our communications and society life. However if we abuse to it we will became addicted to this technology. Take care, it´s an advice.
On the one hand, the new technology help us in our everydays life. It´s useful and fast. For example, 20 years ago some people only had a computer in their hauses; now, in comparison, all the people have at least one commputer (in some cases 2 or3). This is the clearest example in the growth of the technology.
On the other hand, there are some negative points. Firstly, Internet, Chats and Messenger although there are a way of communication in some cases you don´t really know who are you talking with. Secondly, it´s a place where someones can steal your money. You have to be very careful and "click on" in the right place. If you don´t you will have a problem. Thirdly, if you connet all the times to this new technology you can have health problems. Your eyes won´t be grateful.
To sump up, the technology can help us to have a better life improving our communications and society life. However if we abuse to it we will became addicted to this technology. Take care, it´s an advice.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Technology
Technology is wherever you look and our question is how people lived without it . The answer could be that they didn´t know nothing about it.
But nowadays can we stay a day separate from technology? The fact that the answer is no for everybody is one of the problems it cause, we feel the need of technology in our lifes.
Staying a lot of time watching TV for example, can make us having headache and problems in the sight. Besides, for some people can became an addiction.
On the other hand, what about good facts? The technology is the responsible of many human advances. If we talk about medicine, it saves lives everyday.
Moreover, it help us doing tasks much easier and having fun, between other things.
So, you know, put technology in your live.
The positive and negative impact of technology in my life.
Unlike a few years ago it can be said that our life is based on the technology. I am surprised when I see a child of 8 0 9 years with a mobile phone. When I was 9 I had no mobile phone, and if I asked my parents, they told me to stop dreaming, that I did not need one. But nowadays all children I see on the street has one and I give an account of how increasingly technology influences our lives. But is the technology as positive as we believe?
On the one hand I think the technology is positive because it is a new way to take advantage of our free time. I also believe that technology makes us work with less effort and also helps us to improve the performance of our work. In fact, thanks to technology, we have made progress in areas such as health, production, information, communication, which makes life much easier. Although I believe that above all mentioned earlier, the most positive feature of the tecnology is how in such a small period of time we have achieved what has not been able to secure in millions of years.
On the other hand technology is a complex matter that not everyone could understand. There is a great difficulty in adapting to technology by society. For our generation, technology is something that is part of our lives since we were a child, yet for our parents is something new to what they should get used to.
To sum up I believe that the technology is still in a process of development, but one thing is clear, that technology will continue to be the base of our lives in the future.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The positive and negative impact of technology in my life
Nowadays, our lives are completely directed and influenced by technology which has changed people´s lifestyles. We can see it everyday in the streets where it´s almost impossible to find someone without a mobile phone. The truth is that we need technology for everything because we are used to living with the advantages that technology offers and for example,it´s not easy to go a day without the television or the computer. Because of this, I think that this would be a negative point (it´s no good to depend from a machine, at least not as I do). However, this kind of technology (I mean, computer, television, robots...) is practically new as it started its development in last century.
On the one hand, technology lets me do other things and avoid wasting my time. Besides, it is really important to the progress in medicine where technology has promoted different research of diseases like cancer or AIDS. Likewise, it also have helped to develop other techniques like lasers which have helped a less invasive medicine or robots which operate more accurately.
On the other hand, it´s important to say that although technologies help societies to advance, in the same way they increase the differences between countries and even between classes. In addition, sometimes it can be the reason of a clash because of the power that it implies (no country wants to depend on another one). Bearing this in mind, we should consider technology a help only for a minority and this is no just because technology should be for all human beings. Technology can be used in a bad way too, I mean, in wars also it is used but only to invent other ways to destroy more and more, including people (new weapons, atomic bombs like in the case of USA or Iran, ...). In fact, technology in itself isn´t good or bad, its use is the thing that makes it bad or good. Another drawback is that things go out of fashion really fast and we must renew everything all time and this continuous exchange affects nature as it´s very complicated to recycle this kind of object so it makes pollution grow.
As a conclusion I think that technology has made things a lot easier but, at the same time it also makes people a bit lazy. Then, I wonder, does technology progress too fast or not, and what kind of future should we expect for?
Work on your pronunciation
It's a good idea to work on your pronunciation whenever you have time. Here are some resources that can help you:
- the Sky Pronunciation suite which is installed on BC computers both in the CALL Room and the SAC (library)
- a phonetics site where you can see and hear how the different vowel and consonant sounds are produced (click on American English)
- mouseovermusic.com where you can move your mouse over the lyrics and hear a song
- shiporsheep.com where you can practise minimal pairs (similar words where just the vowel sound is different)
- stress monsters a game where you can test your knowledge of which syllable is stressed in a word
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
The positive and negative impact of new technology on my life
You are going to write a posting about the positive and negative impact of new technology on your life.
This will be an asessed piece of writing so try to make it as interesting as possible and ensure that it reflects your experience and views.
You can include photos, videos and web links as you see fit.
If you want to read or watch material on the subject before you start writing, here are some possibilities: the BBC's technology news and the BBC TV programme, Click.
This will be an asessed piece of writing so try to make it as interesting as possible and ensure that it reflects your experience and views.
You can include photos, videos and web links as you see fit.
If you want to read or watch material on the subject before you start writing, here are some possibilities: the BBC's technology news and the BBC TV programme, Click.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Dinosaurs supremacy
Dinosaurs have been probably the most powerful animal of the history. In this video we can see some species of dinosaurs. All of them were strong and had a lot of abilities. I recommend this video to everyone who wants to discover new information about dinosaurs.
Very strange bird
This video shows us a very strange bird "singing" all the things he hears. Not only other birds sounds but alarms and cameras too.
I recommend it to everyone because it´s very curious and funny.
I recommend it to everyone because it´s very curious and funny.
Africa, a dangerous and exciting place
This video is set in Africa. It shows a group of tourists who are very scared because there are a lot of naturals dangers like animals or trees. Africa would be a very exciting place to go because it really intrigues me. I think everyone who is interested in dangerous but at the same time exciting travel has to visit Africa to know more about its landscape and culture.
Is it necesary to drink two litres of water each day?
This video tell us the truth about drinking two litres water a day. It explains that is not necesary to drink so much water because it is in the food we eat.
Interview at the Brit Awards with Noel Gallagher
This is an interview with Noel Gallagher, the leader of the band Oasis. He talked about the respect they have got in America although they haven't had so many record sales as in England. They also talked about the legacy they have left in the United States. Noel said that he has seen shows of The Killers, an American band which has been influenced by Brit Pop, so he thinks that the legacy is less than in England, but it's still there
I recommend this video because I think that it's a very interesting interview
I recommend this video because I think that it's a very interesting interview
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
BBC online at youtube
- Choose a couple of videos from the BBC on youtube to watch
- Write a posting saying what they were about and whether you would recommend them to a friend
- Embed the video in your posting
- Comment on other people's choice of video
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
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