Reaction on the Radio Programme: Dr. Hans Keirstead’s stem cell research

The radio Program we listened was about a research on Stem Cells which have the capacity of becoming any type of cell and by this, replace any cell in the body that is destroyed.
Dr. Hans Keirstead discovered how stem cells can help human beings. He first injected it to paralyzed rats and six months later, they started to move. So he realized the importance of the use of stem cells to treat human diseases. It could help long term paralyzed people, and can cure heart diseases, Diabetes, Alzheimer and every single disease. To treat them, it would be necessary to inject 20 million of these cells into a human body.
Stem cells replace the damaged cells and wrap themselves in the spinal cord, making able for the paralyzed person to walk again.
This process of injecting stem cells to human beings has been very controversial, because it involves the destruction of embryos so it has a strong criticism from the scientific community and also from President Bush who opposes to the killing of embryos because as he says, there is life in those embryos. But another group of people is in favor of the development made with stem cells like the California vote. They wanted to build a laboratory with supplies so that it can improve. Dr. Keirstead said that life must not be thrown away. If we have life, we must use it.
I think that this discovery is very useful because it is a new way of treating diseases and it is very powerful as it can cure everything. It has a grate advantage and there is a great hope for old people. But we must think that there is also a life in the middle. An embryo, even though it’s not mature, it’s a life, a persons life. It does not mean that because it’s not mature enough to talk it doesn’t have the same right of living as we have.
Although it has a lot of advantages, I think that they should keep on investigating and find the way of having the same results without killing embryos.

1º Reaction on Fahrenheit 451

One thing that I like from the book is the fact that the author criticizes many times the problem with society; a non-educated society where the government can impose anything and people obey.

An example of this is Mildred, she represents society. When she is with the script, talking to Montag, we can see that it is describing a consumer society, very empty. And at the same time, when Montag listens to one of Clarisse’s relatives talking about society also, it’s a perfect example of the criticism I was making reference to. “This is the age of the disposable tissue”, where you use something if it benefits you and then, you throw it away. A very selfish attitude, where they don’t notice the other person, but just use them for their own benefit.

This is the perfect type of society governors want: people who are selfish, who do not care about other person’s life, without own thoughts, without apprenticeship or education, so they can control them.

I think this topic in the book is really important because it is happening now, in our own country, where people (who are a considerable part of our society) does not have resources to have a proper education and as a result they are highly manipulated by powerful people. And we are part from that society, but luckily we can achieve to something more and it is not in us to change this situation, it has to come form our governors and mostly from those people’s eager to change and improve their situations. Otherwise, we would eternally have this problem and it has more and more bad consequences each day.

What we can do is just to be grateful and take advantage from what we have.

A great concert: OASIS

It was approximately 10 in the morning, of the 10 of March when we were stepping out of the bus and heading to the hotel as we reached Buenos Aires. Some minutes later, we passed in front of the Polo Camp and saw a line that was 3 blocks long on the outskirts of the estate, where in less that 11 hours the most expected recital of the season (and on top of everything, mine) would be carried out.

From that moment, butterflies invaded my stomach, and I started to feel palpitations. It was the simple fact of imagining me, standing up, in front of a band with such trajectory, such history, songs that marked stages of my life, number one cd’s on the worlds ranking, and of course, number one in my ranking, ALWAYS.

Around 6 in the afternoon, we (my sister, her friend and I) started to get ready and we got beautiful in case we had the grate luck of bumping with any BROTHER. We knew the show would have “Juana la Loca” and “Turf” as support band. But as a surprise, “Intoxicaodos” showed up too. From the 3 groups we could only see Turf, which was on stage minutes before the grate and expected band. During that time, my sister and I were trying to charge credit to out cell phones and my sister’s friend was trying to get some signal so that we could call the people we knew they liked the band and had asked us specifically to remember them during a particular song.

On the stage, we could see the instruments, ready to be played. 15 minutes have passed since 9 o clock and we all started to get impatient. In that moment we saw movement on the stage! Of course, the first reaction or reflex act was to stand up. An unknown man approached to the microphone and confirmed that the group would do their appearance 45 minutes later than it was planned (delay caused by the slow entry of the public). It felt like time was stucked, and I started to get hysterical as usual and reproached the typical unpunctuality of the Argentineans. And then… it began! We got up on our chairs and could saw the band leaded by Noel y Liam Gallagher. Finally the auto proclaimed “best band in the world”, OASIS, made themselves present.

Among shouts and shrieks from the public, they opened the show with 2 of the songs form the new album “Don’t Believe the Truth”: “Turn up the Sun” and “Lyla”. A few moments after it had began, the incomprehensible conduct of the public near the stage generated concern in the musicians that ended up in an alert call from the production of the recital to the ones who were provoking incidents in the side of the stage.

The concert continued in an ordered way but with the mobility and bustle that the songs of the band awakened in people.

The songs of the new album didn’t provoke much response with the exception of “Lyla” and “The importance of being Idle” that Noel sang.
But the commotion was made with the classic themes that occupied more than the half of the list on the songs played.

The public did not stop encouraging them at any moment. Songs like “Wonderwall”, which Liam dedicated to all the ladies that were present, and “Don’t Look Back in Anger”, were Noel leaved the public to sing the chorus as usual, made vibrate 45.000 fans that accompany euphorically to the sound of the songs.

The show was short: it lasted almost half an hour. Songs like “Champagne Supernova", "Rock n´roll star" and “songbird” were not missing. But many of us stayed with the desire of listening some of the most renowned: “Little By Little”, “Go let it out”, or “Stand by me”. At the end, Liam leaded the farewell with: “My Generation”, the classic of the band “The Who”.

The band gave a magnificent presentation, in spite of the short time the spectacle lasted. But the sound was grate! As few artists, their songs were exactly the same as in the CD.

A point against it would be the little interaction they had with the public. But when there was some, they were kind and even funny: quotating Noel when a sneaker flew over his head and say: “shit! It’s Addidas, I wanted a Nike”.

To conclude this, I can simply say that it was one of my best nights of my life. A lot of adrenaline, a lot of rock and roll (or brit pop as you like to call it) and a lot of OASIS. The per-fect mix.

Radio Programme: workaholics

In class, we've listen to a radio programme about people who work a lot and did many things at the same time and its effect on people, and their productivity.

We heard about a man named Joe who multitasked a lot: he made 2 phone calls while sending messages and checking his e-mails, he also typed e-mails while driving his car.
Personally, I think that multitasking can be useful in the computer for example. It helps me doing things faster and I save a lot of time I would have wasted if I didn’t do it that way. For example, I listen to music while chatting and doing my homework. Many people says that your work cannot be as efficient as if you do it without multitasking. But I think that it depends on each person and their way of managing things. I’m very used to doing it, so for me it’s more useful, instead of listening to music, then chatting and after that doing my homework, I save time and do it all together. But as I said: it depends on each person. Someone who is not used to multitasking may affect its productivity.

Another example is Christina, who didn’t use as much technology as Joe, but she had 2 cell phones: one for personal calls and the other to use it for her work.
In my opinion, I think it could be very useful to know weather if it is a personal one or form work. But many people do not do this because it’s a bit uncomfortable to carry around two cell phones everywhere. And besides, nowadays, technology is so advanced that the cell phone can identify the person who is calling.

In the radio programme they also talked about an experiment which consisted on working wherever and whenever people wanted as log as they finished. And the results were very good: people worked more than before! And I think this is grate because people know they have a deadline and they can administrate their time if they work at home and at any time they want instead of going all mornings at work and sitting in front of a desk.
I think it’s excellent or at least for me, because sometimes I’m not in a really good mood at the morning and I’m not very efficient. So what I’d do those days would be doing something else and in the afternoon when I’m better I do all the work I didn’t do before. Besides it’s much more inspiring to go to the park, seat on a bench and do you’re work, or sitting in a café while doing it rather than being behind your desk, always looking at the same thing, surrounded by the same things every single day.

To conclude I would say that although it is very important to be responsible at work, we must have an intermediate point were everything is not only work, because we also have an intellectual and familiar life to develop.
And to perform well at work, the person must have a balance. Anyway, this equilibrium is always the most difficult pint to find.

My Family

My two first entries to the blog where related with the subjects we saw in class: one was about Ernest Hemingway and the other about the article “You 2.0”. But also, through these works, I will talk about persons or characters that have been with me over very pleasant (and not so much) experiences I have lived, over facts and events that have impacted me. But all this, will always be related with my personal view and with the moral and intellectual relation I make with the rest of the people or things. And all this is born with my education and it is centered pure and exclusively on what is, until today, the hub of my life: my family. This is why it is my first personal theme I want to talk about. Because everything that comes up from now on, will always be related with them.

Growing and developing is not simple and I know that many times it is not very gratifying, but it’s not my case. Precisely because looking around me I can value more what I have. The solid and indestructible bases that I have acquired during these years are the ones that let me walk with confidence towards the future.

Sometimes, different circumstances make people go over situations that mark them in their growth, for example: my father is an only child of separate parents since he was three years old. He surely lived a lot of grieves and sadness over his childhood, but he learned about this and I also learn from him. Because, from this unfavorable facts, the person gets an apprenticeship or it starts being resentful. Surely, there will always be a deep sadness in my dad, but that never stopped him from being the honest, affectionate, responsible and excellent person he is today. It does not mean that everything is easy and simple, but the important thing is that further than all the discussions and the different point of views, I knew that his love and affection where always there for me.

He had everything in the economical aspect, but he suffered a lot with his feelings. However, he is what I can say “THE” father.

My mother, despite all the economic vicissitudes, had better times. With few material things, but with all the love, affect and respect of her family achieved all the things she had proposed to herself: she managed to do her secondary school in a nearby town, when she hadn’t in hers, she could grow as a person because of the invaluable help from my grandfather Telmo and my grandmother Eugenia. She got into the university and obtained her title in a city 150 km far from her town, working 12 hours a day and using all free time and vacations available to take the exams. And all that effort didn’t resented her, but made her valorize more everything she had gotten and what she become afterwards, using all that on what is today “MY MOM”.

As you can see, two life histories completely different and opposite. However a same result: two excellent persons for me. This teaches me that the adversities always exist in a way or another, but we must learn from them and in spite everything we can, and we must go on. My sister and I grew up in the bosom of a strong family, constantly compromised with all of our economic, spiritual and moral needs. Which, I’m sure guarantees us, conjunctly with education, acquire success in anything that we propose ourselves to do. It does not mean that the road would be easy and we would have a smooth path, but you know what? I can see myself reflected on Jaime Barilko’s thought. I don’t lose my way, the lines that demarcate it gave me confidence and I know precisely where I have to recourse to when I’m disoriented, because I have in my family the compass that will always take me to my destiny.

Ernest Hemingway - "Now I Lay Me"

By reading the story of Ernest Hemingway “Now I Lay Me”, it made me think that beyond the poetical part that we can find to the theme, there is a real part which generally is translated to plenty of complications for people that suffers it (referring to the central theme of the story that it is Insomnia).

Personally, by luck, I don’t suffer this problem, but particularly my father does. This has let me watch that if it is not treated with seriously, it transforms in a problem which influence very inauspiciously in the life of many people, as it diminish the labor and intellectual performance the next day.

At first, when this problem started being more pronounced, my father went to the doctor, who recommended a medication that helps him but does not totally eliminate the problem. With all these, he made a series of habits wich diminished the anxiety so he could relax and reconcile his sleep as soon as possible. Some of the techniques that he implements are based on not watching t.v. when it’s late at night and the first habit he modified is not turning it on in his bedroom before he goes to sleep. By the contrary, what he does is reading some book or publication so in that way, after some time relax and be able to sleep.

A healthy, balanced diet, like the one he practices over a year and a half, now that he has a declared diabetes, accompanied by regular and constant physical exercise have also helped him. But this is a problem that forces you not to be careless because apart from all the precautions that he takes, for the person that suffers it seriously, it’s always latent and it appears in front of any alteration.

This is simply an attempt of reflecting some of the facts that I’ve been able to rescue and to relate the story with what happens to my dad, so that maybe something of what he practices to solve it, can help someone who suffers it.

From what he tells me, although it seems contradicted, the worst thing that can happen to him in front of this situation is to be lying down. Because his mind starts to link subjects, problems and situations that he starts to think about and the possibility of concealing sleep gets difficult every time.

That is why he automatically gets up and starts doing some kind of activity different that can distract him and allows him not to center his mind on subjects that worries him. As soon as he can clear his mind a little bit, there he goes back to sleep and then, with luck (sometimes and others with not so many), he can go to sleep.

I hope that some of this can be useful to someone.

You or your world?

Having reading the article “You or your world?” and commenting it with my mother, it came to her mind a book called “Cuando Nada Te Basta” of the author “Harold Kushner”. The main taught that the book has left to her was: it is not the happiest person the one who has everything, but the one who conforms with what he has. From there, she started rereading and I read for the first time that book. Now, I want to make some little reflections over the first part that I read and which is related to the first article we read in class of the section You 2.0
There are many questions that are established and are not easy to answer. For example: “Wanting to be happy is asking too much in life?”, “would it be that happiness as eternal youth or perpetual movement are an unreachable purpose, no matter how much we effort to reach it?”, “or is it possible that the man is happy but what happens is that he has taken the wrong path?”
Oscar Wild once wrote that: “In this world, there are only two tragedies. One is not obtaining what we want, and the other is obtaining it”. What he tried to warn us is that no matter how much effort we put on doing things right, success would never leave us satisfied. When we reach to that point, after scarifying many things in pursuit of success, we understand that that wasn’t what we wanted.
Many times, while we watch television or a movie, we think how happy we would be if we had everything that appears there. But we would have to think why people that possesses all that, lots of times (or most of them), aren’t happy either. This proves us that although we see it constantly, where movies show us or the books tells us, the message never get to us. We always believe that if we had all the things that they have, we would be happy.
By the other hand, if the concept that we have of ourselves depend on our popularity and the opinion we deserve in front of the eyes of other people, we would always be liable to this other people.
This is why having the best car, the best house, the supposed best man or woman, never fulfills or ends fulfilling completely of happiness the life of people because evidently our souls do not need comfort, riches, or power. This gratifications creates almost as many problems as they solve. Our souls are thirsty of sense and what they are eager for is the sensation that we have learnt to live in such way that our existence is important, so that the world is at least a little different by the fact that we have been through it.
These reflections I had with my mother while we read the book I wanted to share them with you as they are related with the article we read in class.