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NEWS: Feminist pornographers

A new trend has begun in Toronto. Feminist pornography. They are active and growing in number.

Pandora Blake, a 29-year-old sex worker and film director, says that is "possible to record porn in a feminist way". Because "feminist pornographers" are encouraged to enjoy themselves while they are working, in order not to be treated as mere objects. 

Tristan Taormino, another leading feminist pornography director, says that "You get to see more of people's bodies, more of people's faces, and there's less of an assumption of one person or one gender being the focus over another". She tells that because in mostly all "normal" porn films, the camera is focused on the genitals of the actors. She has even organized a Feminist Porn Conference at the University of Toronto.

Feminist porn is also all-inclusive. Men, women, transgender people, gays, lesbians, self-identified "queer" people, straight people, disabled people, people of colour, fat people may be main characters of the porno films.

It's different and innovative, and it's driving the attention of lots of people and experts in the porno world. 

I believe that this kind of filming industry can be really interesting as the actors and the filming process is not focused in the actors as mere sexual objects.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27192724  

NEWS: The forgotten letters of WWII

A box containing 1000 letters from WWII has been discovered. The letters were sent from France to England, and they contain valuous information of France's attitude towards the second World War. 

The letters before being sent to England passed a censorship, that checked the content of the letters. Most of them were sent anonymously or with pseudonyms, as a person contrary to the regime could die in that period. The letters were written by all sorts of people: workers, intellectuals and farmers. Thanks to this fact, we can see a great variety of opinions in them.

I believe that hese letters have a great value to society and history because they may carry valuable information to historians. The letters are also important to the British and French history because they will reveal lots of unknown details of WWII. 

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27340358 

NEWS: Fighting with relatives seems to be linked with premature death

Danish researchers have found out that constant arguing with partners, friends or relatives can increase the risk of death in middle-aged people. 

Even though they could not find the reasons behind that, previous studies show that people with high levels of anxiety and those who often argue with their close family members have a higher risk of heart disease and strokes. So this indicates that anxiety may be an important factor.

According to the study, those who had more levels of anxiety were unemployed men. Nevertheless, if we think about it, when those men get jobs they get stressed... What is the best way then to not die early?

I believe that fighting with relatives is bad and that this research can be true. Apart from this, I think that arguing is a bad think even though they could prove that it doesn't increase the risk of death, because it brings all kinds of problems. 

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27327325 

Human Right #13 FREEDOM TO MOVE

I didn’t thought that there was a right that allowed everyone to the freedom to move and reside within the borders of each State. A basic right like this is fundamental for a good living and living together. The video also describes another human right: everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. The right to travel is written in another article but this article also describes the right to change the country were you live and leave it. The important idea of this video is that traveling is a great experience and sometimes shows you that humans are free.

Self-evaluation Oral Presentation

• When I was doing my presentation I had one major problem: getting nervious. The presentation for my research project was really summarized, and maybe because of that i couldn't convey everything that I wanted. However, it was a good presentation. With a little more of time I've could have done it better I think. On the next presentation i want to know everything that I want to say so my marks are higher

NEWS: Doha, Qatar blast kills 12 and injures at least 30

12 people were killed and at least 30 injured in a Turkish restaurant in the Qatari capital, Doha. 

Police suspected at first that a burst in a natural gas tank was the cause of the incident, however it is not clear what ignited the tank. 

A further investigation is being made.

Another fatal incident (fire in the Villagio Mall) in another mall affected Qatar two years ago. It was in May 2012 and it killed 19 people and injured 13 children that were in a day care centre inside of the building. 

Opinion: I am very sorry for the people that died in the building. However, incidents like this are not foreseeable, and therefore people cannot prevent them.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26369367

NEWS: Philip Seymour Hoffman 'killed by toxic mix of drugs''

Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who starred in movies like Charlie Wilson's War, Doubt and The Master died because of an overdose of a mixture of drugs that included heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, and benzodiazepine. 

The star was found dead in his home in New York last February. Post-mortem results were revealed last Friday, and he left a partner of 15 years, Mimi O'Donnell, and their three children. 

He had problems with drugs and he was in a drug treatment programme that lasted 10 days last year but he could not overcome his addiction.

Opinion: I think that is very sad that big stars as Hoffman have to die because of drugs. Drugs are now a problem in society, and I think that governments do not have enough laws to prevent this from happening.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26394100

NEWS: India's tea firms urged to act on slave trafficking after girls freed

Slave trading is a reality in India. Girls as young as 11 years old are taken from tea plantations to be sold as domestic servants. 

These girls were taken in tea plantations. These plantations belong also to Tetley's company, one of the major tea companies in United Kingdom. The investigation also showed that workers in these plantations are paid as low as 0.91 cents a day, 6 days a week, which is half the legal minimum wage.

Opinion: When I read this article I realised that we can buy high-quality and expensive products without knowing the realities of the people that worked to make the product. Tea is sold a lot in the UK specially, and if in these plantations are happening these things, I don't think that these companies should exist anymore. Tea sold by these companies have labels saying "100%" natural", but they do not say "we pay half the legal minimum wage to our workers" or "slave trade often occurs in our plantations". 

Source:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/01/india-tea-firms-urged-tackle-slave-traffic-plantations

NEWS: Nasa finds 715 new planets

Nasa scientists have discovered 715 new planets. This means that there are a total of 1700 planets beyond the solar system. 

Four of this 715 new planets were about 2 and a half times as big as the Earth and were discovered with a space telescope called Kepler.   

This discovery was achieved thanks to a new techique and means that astronomers almost doubled the total number of planets known to humanity. 

Opinion: I really admire the scientists' work. It is very amazing to know that we are sorrounded by 1700 exoplanets. Kepler telescope is a great tool also because is being improved and we may know in the future more details about these planets. 

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/27/nasa-finds-new-planets

The rhetorical figures in advertising language and its influence in society

Key words: Advertising, rhetorical figures, influence

With this project I suggest that you immerse yourself in the world of advertising. Its main objectives  are: to know how advertising is created and how it affect us. We look for implicits messages of publicity and analyze rhetorical figures of ads. We learn that rethorics play a great role in the advertising world industry in deed. We would be really surprised if we knew the real intantion of the publicist when he wants to sell us a product. Methods as sophisticated as subliminal publishing or the use of rethorical figures are only one of the themes that we deal with this project. A rigorous analysis of the different kinds of advertising products is made and therefore we get to know the different kinds of methods actually used in them.

My comments in other classmates' blogs

I commented in the following blogs:

Tiziana's blog

Pau's blog

Júlia's blog

NEWS: Katy Perry Dark Horse video edited

Katy Perry's latest video has beed edited because it received a petition signed from a community of Muslims saying that it was blasphemous.

The problem was that in the clip featured a person with a pendant which had the Arabic word for God in it reduced to sand. This scene was considered offensive for more than 65000 people.

As a response to these complaints, Katy Perry's company or Youtube (it is not clear who did it) erased the word "God" from the scene satisfaying the urges from this Muslims.

Before and after - the pendant featuring Allah, the Arabic word for God, has been digitally removed from the scene

Opinion: I think that the Muslims' petition was justified, because all religions must be respected. However, people cannot acuse Katy Perry for blasfemy because it is most likely that putting the name "God" in the pendant was not her idea. The most important thing in this piece of news is that Katy Perry or Youtube erased that pendant from the clip in a peaceful way. Other artists can learn from this fact because these clips are viewed by millions of hits and can be understood in lots of different ways.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-26366249

NEWS: Yahoo webcam images from millions of users intercepted by GCHQ

This piece of news is about British and American agencies that intercepted and stored webcam images of millions of Yahoo users around the world. These users were not suspected of wrongdoing but these agencies still kept their images.

These two agencies did this since 2008 and 2012, and the images stolen were stored in databases. An interesting piece of data shows that in a six-month period alone, these agencies collected photos of more than 1.8 million Yahoo users. 

When asked, Yahoo said that they had no idea about this, and they denied any prior knowledge of the program abd accused these agencies of privacy violation. 

My opinion of all this is that the Internet is no longer a save place. Piece of news like this prove that we are controlled in a lot of ways and arouse a big question: if even countries can spy us, what is left? Are we really free? Or are we in George Orwells' 1984 book? 

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/27/gchq-nsa-webcam-images-internet-yahoo

Morocco's mosques

Mosques are really important in Morocco as the country itself is a muslim country. Every village has its own mosque and in big cities like Tangiers and Tetuan we can find amazing and beautiful architectural works. These mosques often coexist with synagogues and churchs. These buildings have huge domes and minarets. Their colours are bright: green, red and with-ish colours are the predominant colours. Friday is the sacred day for muslims, so hundres of people gather to pray the second pray of the day in mosques. To perform this prayer, people take out carpets so worshippers can pray outside the mosque as there isn't enough space inside. All this features show the importance of mosques in Morocco and its significance within society.

Holidays in Morocco

Me and my family decided to spend winter holidays in Morocco. It was a journey by cruise that lasted 3 days, from Barcelona to Tangiers. We had 4 cabins that had its own bathroom, but they were a little bit small. We ate in the cruise's restaurant. Their speciality was fish and it was really good. We spent two nights in the cruise, and on the morning of the third day we arrived to Tangier's port. We got off the cruise and we went by car to our place. Our house is located in a residential area called "Doha". In the last years they built lots of buildings and new houses there. Our apartment is on the first floor and it is really lovely. It has three rooms, small terrace, kitchen, bathroom and a quite big living room. We spent two weeks there and I came back with my two sisters on Epiphany's day. Our parents stayed until January the 15th because as it is obvious, they did not have to start school again. 

Morocco's taxis

Morocco has two kinds of taxis: the blue and the beige ones. The blue ones can pick up to tree people. The beige ones are able to pick up to six passangers instead of four (which would be the legal numer of passengers). The blue ones are more expensive because they have a tool called "corsa". This tool is similar to a regular taximeter, but beige taxis are not provided with it. What is really unique of taxi drivers in Marocco is their particular way of driving. They are really agressive when driving because most people dont follow driving rules. However, we must say that people are used to this kind of driving and that it is not dangerous to take a taxi in Morocco.

These photos were taken by me