40 Things about Facebook

20 things I like about Facebook:

1. You can share with others.
2. You can see your photos.
3. You can see photos from others.
4. The status that you can post.
5. Writing on other people's wall.
6. Keeping in touch with people that live far away.
7. When someone that you haven't seen in a while adds you.
8. If you want things more private you can send a message.
9. You can block people that you dislike.
10. You can "like" walls or status.
11. Playing Farmville.
12. Playing Texas Holdem.
13. You are aware of events.
14. You know exactly were people are.
15. You can report photos that you don't like.
16. You can put nicknames to your friends.
17. You can find out if your girlfriend cheats on you.
18. You remember everyone's birthday.
19. You can send gifts to others.
20. You never get tired of it.

20 things I dislike about Facebook.

1. The Messenger
2. People can stalk you easily.
3. People putting drunk photos of you.
4. People posting bad things on your wall.
5. Sometimes it becomes really slow.
6. Sometimes you have to skip photos because it freeze.
7. They have lots of games and most of them are really bad.
8. All the advertisement that goes around.
9. While logging in, it sometimes asks you again for your birthday and it asks for a code.
10. People may find out things that you didn't want them to find out.
11. It may put you offline sometimes.
12. They have some terrible applications.
13. People sending all sorts of gifts.
14. People sending you invitations that you don't want.
15. Duplicated groups on Facebook.
16. Groups for political campaigns.
17. People having 2,500 friends.
18. When someone really creapy adds you.
19. Addicted people.
20. Fake people.

Air Pollution

We have now become aware that our Earth is suffering due to our irresponsible activities as human beings. Many years ago we would not concern if we wasted water or if we polluted, in fact we barely knew what global warming was. But now we have found our cities full of garbage, grey skies, and lack of water. That’s what we see in our everyday life, but we might not be aware of the vanishing species in the environment, energy depletion and rain forest destruction. All of these issues have a solution, but that’s up to us is we want to fix them. Perhaps air pollution is the one we are most aware of because we are more connected to it and we see it everyday with simple things like using our cars, using hair sprays or even the effect of sound. That is why it is important to understand the causes and the dangers that it involves, as well as the actions that we might take as citizens to stop this on going issue.

Air pollution can be described as the chemicals that harm living things, the atmosphere and the environment in general. Some of the major chemicals are the ones mixed with sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide and monoxide. All of these are located in something related to human activity. These activities include the use of power plants, motor vehicles, aerosol sprays, toxic gases, waste deposition and many more. Also, we can see as pollutants the use of smoke, radon gas, methane, volcanic activity and others. The already mentioned activities are not only harming the environment but they have started to harm our health. There have been several physical difficulties that have been arising thanks to this issue such as asthma, bronchitis and some heart and lung diseases. As we can see this issue is affecting everyone around the world and therefore it is time to save not only the environment but our own lives which can easily be in danger.

We might think that the place that we live in is extremely air polluted, but there are many places in the world that are in a far worse situation. I was born in Mexico City and I thought that it was the most polluted city in the world. The sky was always grey or brown, there was garbage everywhere and it just felt uncomfortable. But after making my research I realized that my birth city is not even in the top ten. In fact Asian countries are the worst ones. Cairo, Delhi and Kolkata hold the world’s title for being the most air polluted, which is nothing to be proud of. As a country in general, China holds the first place, and below them comes the United States and then Russia, with levels of pollution that seem unreal. Our neighbor in the north has Pittsburgh, Fresno and Los Angeles holding the less than honorable positions. But just because there are cities or countries with more pollution than ours doesn’t mean that our own nation is doing well at all.

After finding out all the causes and dangers now it’s time to find short and long term solutions to this situation. Car companies have started to create hybrid ones, in order to increase fuel efficiency. Cities all over the world have started to plan ahead in this topic. That is why they have implemented transportation and zoning restrictions. There have also been initiatives to use cleaner fuels such as biodiesel and bio-ethanol. Companies have also started to worry about creating items that can keep control over mercury, dioxin, furan and nitrogen. Moving on to individual actions as citizens we can probably start to bike to school instead of using our cars and maybe taking less airplanes. Also, recycling is very helpful and we should implement not only in schools but in streets and common areas. All of these ideas to should not be left as just simple initiatives but we should start paying more attention to them and actually executing them.

Now we’ve realized the danger that we’ve caused to our environment. It is important to say that this issue did not suddenly arise in the last fifteen or twenty years but it is a consequence of our lack of care. It is sad to see that once we see the issue ahead of us we truly worry and we start finding who is guilty for this but the reality is that is has built up over the last century. We should not back down, and we should come up with more and more campaigns and actions to keep people aware. Many humans do not realize because it is actually not affecting them directly but there will be a day when we will pay for our lack of conscience. We could talk for days about ideas and plans but it is up to us to start acting. If we all contribute then it will be simpler, and maybe one day we’ll have a green environment with a blue sky.

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/pollution-overview.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution


http://top-10-list.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Mexico-City-Mexico-Pollution.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2066/2419349567_f645b0da81.jpg

http://www.magazine.ucla.edu/exclusives/air-pollution_cholesterol2.jpg

Classmates' Videos

CocaCola - Vallarta from markpicketts on Vimeo.

We recently finished an exciting project in which people's creativity was put on the spot. Through our ads we were able to do some acting and some video editing which ended up as cool product presentations. One of the videos that I thought was amazing was the one made by Rudy. First of all because he did it about my favorite sport and also because I thought it was very dynamic. Also, Paulina's ad was well done. She chose different locations, the acting was great and the message was pretty clear. Although none of the videos were poorly done, I must say that some of them could have been better. For example the Mastercard ads by Andrea and Victoria. They needed a better editing and also they had to engage the consumers more into the product. About my project, I can now say that it probably needed a catching song as a background, as well as better illumination. Overall I think we all did a wonderful performance, and I hope we keep doing fun projects like this one.

The Potential of Sixth Sense Technology

I could not believe the amazing technological product that an Indian guy had made. I was expecting something similar to what the major technological companies such as Apple and Microsoft are offering. The truth is that it came up to be something unexpected, and I have to say that I didn't think that the new device was real. I was definitely amazed to see such an interesting product that will revolutionize the world once it's available on the market. I can't wait for it to come out and become popular, because I'm sure that it will change our ways of life by making things easier. Everything will be at reach and we will get rid of so many other products because this one will have all we need. Impressive material, now we just have to wait for it to come out.

After looking at the video we realize the greatness of technology. People keep developing new stuff to amaze us and to make us believe that there will always be something better and efficient as the years go on. We must thank technology for making our lives easier in all aspects. We must also be grateful to it for allowing us to improve and to change our habits. Despite all the beneficial things that it can offer, we have to be aware that there are also some limitants to it. Technological devices can make us dependent from them. They can make us lazy and useless since the new products will do everything for us. Due to the enormous information that they can handle, our privacy could also be put in danger. Those are pretty much the ups and downs of this on going movement of technology.

The inventor said towards the end of the video that the product will be open source. When he says this he means that it will be pretty much available to anyone. We might think that it will only be used for certain purposes but he is willing to share it with the public at a very low cost. This is a very good idea because by allowing a free redistribution of the product it will become more popular and powerful around the globe. The only down side that I see to this idea is the lack of privacy that it will offer once it comes out to the market. Hopefully it will be successful like other open source products that we've used over the last years such as the Internet.

TV Ads

Sometimes we see T.V. adds that stick to our minds forever. We might not know that the brand exists or how good is the product that it shows, but if the commercial is good then you'll remember it and when you see it you are more likely to buy it. I have to say that most of the TV ads that we see now a days are pretty lame and boring, but we often see some good ones that we are unlikely to forget. For example we saw the Berlitz, the Jetta and the condom commercials. All of them seem to capture the attention of the viewers and the humor that they contain makes them very effective to their purposes. Other than this extraordinary TV ads, I will never forget the Nike one of Joga Bonito, in which the best soccer players show off their skills, and the one of the Cheyenne, in which a little boy is more interested in inheriting one, instead of a huge piece of land. I bet the sales of Nike and Chevrolet increased after they put these two on TV.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=griz8IBrMfs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b-_OVcvUyo

After seeing some really good examples of TV ads, it is our turn to make our own. The truth is that I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but it I think that it will be related to horses or soccer. On my ad I will definitely put some crucial elements in order for it to work. First of all I think that it is essential to put some music on it. I think it really worked on the Jetta commercial. I'm also going to try to make it funny, because a good joke is always fundamental for them. Finally I will try to put some cool effects and maybe ask some good looking girls to be on my commercial. Although I haven't decided yet on it, I'm looking forward to this project.

Sexting Tragedy

We just read an article about a girl, Jessica Logan, who committed suicide after being unable to stand against people's bullying and harrassment. Her boyfriend sent out to all of his friends a naked photo of her, which lead to this well known tragedy. After the photo was spread all over her friends, school mates and even other school districts, she decided to put an end to her life. Her parents, instead of suing the people who were responsible for this situation, they sued the school arguing that they didn't do enough to stop the bullying and the harrasment. It is really sad to hear that a young and pretty girl commited suicide, but I think Jessica is the responsible for all of this after deciding to send her boyfriend the photo. I couldn't understand why she would it and why she didn't think of the consequences after a possible break up.

Jessica's parents have decided to take legal action against her school. I totally understand that they are desperate, sad and dissapointed for what just happened, but trying to sue the school is not going to work. Instead of just going against anyone, they should calmly think of the situation and then sue the people that were in a way, responsible for the situation. The school, in this case, has nothing to do with it. From what we read in the article, they did what they could but they couldn´t really get involved in this issue. It was alright to tell students to stop and to give counselling but they couldn´t expell the people that were involved because then they would have to expell every single kid. If they were actually expelled then they would even bully more and more. Also, things were spread outside school and outside the district, which was totally out of reach for Jessica´s high school. The school did everything that they could do, so they shouldn´t worry about it. The responsibility first started with Jessica and then with her parents, who should have acted quicker after seing the terrible situation that their daughter was going through.

Video Editing

We will be doing a challenging project at the beginning of next year about video editing. For that special assignment, I was thinking of making a TV commercial about some of the basic things that you need to do in order to make a horse jump. In this project I will be working with Carlos and Rafa.