viernes, 20 de marzo de 2015

Graffiti: A work of art or vandalism?



Descripción: https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcShcqft4QZHpZXoC1_Po9zW7dZ229SX4UnPnNeE0EAf-A0Oge0hx0syet2F
Descripción: http://www.paulstravelpictures.com/SW-34th-Street-Graffiti-Wall-Gainesville-FL/SW-34th-Street-Graffiti-Wall-Gainesville-FL-003.JPG 34th Street Wall



There are two types of “graffiti”: one is the called street art which are beautiful creative paintings that artists (almost always unknown) paint on the street walls with, most of the times, sprays; the other type is graffiti, which is an act of vandalism that makes the cities’ walls look dirty, on example of graffiti could be those signs that you can see a lot of times on the streets in almost every city.

In the street art there are lettering techniques such as:             
BUBBLE LETTERS
Descripción: http://www.photographyrea.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Graffiti-Alphabets-Bubble-Yellow-Style.jpg


BLOCK LETTERS
Descripción: http://fctags.s3.amazonaws.com/9e474fdb4a91ed4651c73dfb40a82ef72b3767d3.jpg



WILDSTYLE
Descripción: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Wildstyle_graffiti.JPG


CALLIGRAFFITI
Descripción: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_livwr90I4h1qhr1nt.jpg



Some graffiti painters are Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat (SAMO), Jose Parla or BANSKY






Descripción: http://cdn.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/jose_parla_07.jpgDescripción: http://www.popandroll.com/coke-art/Keith_Haring3.jpgDescripción: http://uploads2.wikiart.org/images/jean-michel-basquiat/philistines.jpg
Descripción: http://www.veniceartcrawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/gr5128c9cb.jpg

St. Valentine's Day

  • Each year on February 14th, many people exchange cards, candy, gifts or flowers with their special “valentine.” The day of romance we call Valentine’s Day is named for a Christian martyr and dates back to the 5th century, but has origins in a Roman holiday.


  • Here are some interesting facts about this “lovely” festivity:

1. The St. Valentine who inspired the holiday may have been two different men.
2. In all, there are about a dozen St. Valentines, plus a pope.
3. Valentine is the patron saint of beekeepers and epilepsy, among many other things.
4. You can find Valentine’s skull in Rome.
5. Chaucer may have invented Valentine’s Day.
6. You can celebrate Valentine’s Day several times a year.


  • But because a lot of people doesn’t know a lot of this facts the bring to their boyfriend or girlfriend a rose and a box of chocolates without knowing that they are celebrating the date in which a man died as a martyr.

Most important inventions since 1950 in the USA

Microwave (1945)

 A microwave oven, commonly referred to as a microwave, is a kitchen appliance that heats and cooks food by bombarding it with electromagnetic radiation. It was invented with a military purpose, but they discovered it heated things so by 1950s is started being used like we use today.


Airbag (1952)

An airbag is a vehicle safety device. It is an occupant restraint system consisting of a flexible fabric envelope or cushion designed to inflate rapidly during an automobile collision. It was developed by Dr Allen S Breed in 1967.


Snowboard (1965)

Snowboards are boards that are usually the width of one's foot longways, with the ability to glide on snow. It has been an Olympic game since 1998, but it started as a home-made table to enjoy snow.


Compact disc (1965)

Compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format. The format was originally developed to store and play only sound recordings but was later adapted for storage of data (CD-ROM). American inventor James T. Russell has been credited with inventing the first system to record digital information.  Russell's patent application was first filed in 1966, and he was granted a patent in 1970. Following him, Sony and Philips licensed Russell's patents  in the 1980s.


Handheld calculators (1967)

In the early 1970s, the daily lives of people throughout the developed world were changed profoundly by the invention of Jack Kilby. It was a small electronic machine that could perform basic mathematical problems much more quickly and more accurately than they could be worked out on paper. Calculators expanded the math capabilities of everyone from high school students to businessmen.


Email (1971)
A local inter-user mail (Ray Tomlinson) program incorporating the experimental file transfer program, CPYNET, allowed the first networked electronic mail.


Mobile phone (1973)

It is a phone that can receive telephone calls over a radio link moving around the area. The first handheld cell phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Dr. Martin Cooper of Motorola.


Personal computers (1976)

Today’s personal computers are drastically different from the massive, hulking machines that emerged out of World War II. By the 1970s, technology had evolved to the point that individuals could purchase unassembled “microcomputers” and program them for fun, but these early PCs could not perform many of the useful tasks that today’s computers can.


Social media (2002)

One of the first social media in the world was Facebook; its creator was Mark Zuckerberg who now owns other important social media such as Whatsapp.


Segway (1997)


 It is a self-balancing personal transportation device with two wheels; can operate in any level pedestrian environment. It was introduced to public in 2001.

lunes, 2 de marzo de 2015

Most Common Crimes in the USA

Basic knowledge

Trial (juicio): jury (jurado) + judge (juez)
Evidence = proof               Innocent = Guilty

Charges

+ Felony (always go to jail)
   Misdemeanor (rarely jail)
-   Ticket (no jail)


1. - Motor vehicle theft

It is the criminal act of stealing a car or a part of it.


2. – Domestic violence

It is the violence produced by a man to a woman or by a woman to a man only for being a man or a woman. It is usually produced by a person you know, almost always by someone of your family.


3. – Underage drinking

The minimum legal age to drink in the USA is 21, but young people uses fake IDs or tell someone older to buy alcohol for them, so it becomes very easy to get it.


4. – Aggravated assault

An attempt is to commit a battery; it is a misdemeanor, not a felony; four elements are required at common law: the apparent, present ability to carry out; an unlawful attempt; to commit a violent injury; upon another.


5. - Rape

It is a form of sexual violence.
Nearly 90000 people were raped in the USA in 2008.
25% of the population will be raped; 89% of the times, a woman is raped by somebody she knows.


6. - Fraud and racketeering

For example: electoral fraud, mail and wire fraud, computer fraud or identity fraud.


7. - Prostitution

It is a misdemeanor (illegal) in all USA except from Las Vegas.
23/100000 people are considerate to be prostitutes and they are often associated with drugs.


8. - Burglary

Buildings can include sheds, barns and all houses.
If you broke something it is considered a misdemeanor, but, in contrast, if you steal something it is a felony.


9. - Drugs

In 2012, an estimated 23.9 million Americans aged 12 or older had used an illicit drug or abused a psychotherapeutic medication.

 

10. - Murder

Nearly 1 in 15,000 people is murdered in the United States each year.
In the United States the rates of killing are much higher than in many industrialized nations, exceeding those in Canada, many western European nations, and Japan.




jueves, 26 de febrero de 2015

Top 10 unsolved crimes in the USA

1. The Zodiac Killer

The Zodiac Killer was a serial killer who operated in northern California in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The killer's identity remains unknown. Four men and three women between the ages of 16 and 29 were targeted. The killer originated the name "Zodiac" in a series of taunting letters sent to the local Bay Area press. These letters included four cryptograms. Of the four cryptograms sent, only one has been definitively solved.





2. Tupac and Biggie Smalls

On the 1996 night Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas, Suge Knight was nabbed for violating his probation (for stomping a guy); he spent five years in prison. During this time, Knight's former high school classmate and head of security, Reggie Wright Jr., took over the bulk of Knight's duties at Death Row Records, the once–obscenely popular rap imprint, which was about to go downhill.





 3. D.B Cooper

After hijacking a plane Northwest company that made traveling between Portland and Seattle, Cooper got that authorities will provide $ 200,000 in cash and two parachutes in exchange for free the passengers of the flight. He then ordered the pilot to go to Mexico City and in a  desert area between Seattle and Reno, jumped into the gap. Almost forty years later, still has not solved the mystery of the fate of criminal famous after his daredevil jump.





4. Tylenol poisonings


  The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. James William Lewis was convicted of extortion for sending a letter taking credit for the deaths and demanding $1 million to stop them, and he was also the primary suspect in the killings despite living in New York City at the time. The incidents led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws.





5. The Black Dahlia


"The Black Dahlia" was a nickname given to Elizabeth Short (July 29, 1924 – c. January 15, 1947), an American woman who was the victim of a gruesome and much-publicized murder. Short was found mutilated; her body sliced in half at the waist, on January 15, 1947, in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. Short's unsolved murder has been the source of widespread speculation, leading to many suspects, along with several books and film adaptations of the story. Short's murder is one of the oldest unsolved murder cases in Los Angeles history.





6. Jonbenét Ramsey



JonBenét Patricia Ramsey (August 6, 1990 – December 25, 1996) was an American girl who was murdered in her home in Boulder, Colorado in 1996. The six-year-old's body was found about eight hours after she was reported missing, in the basement of the family home, during a police search of the home. She had been struck on the head and strangled. The case remains unsolved, even after several grand jury hearings, and continues to generate public and media interest.

Colorado law enforcement agencies initially suspected Ramsey's parents and her older brother Burke. However, the family was partially exonerated in 2003 when DNA taken from the victim's clothes suggested they were not involved. Her parents were not completely cleared until July 2008. In February 2009, the Boulder Police Department took the case back from the district attorney to reopen the investigation. 





7. Disembodied feet


Since August 2007, five human feet have washed ashore near Vancouver, British Columbia. No bodies, no heads, no clothes, just feet (4 left, 1 right), nearly all still clad in sneakers. Canadian authorities have yet to determine how the feet ended up there or why, though DNA tests matched one of the severed feet to a man who'd been missing for several months. A number of theories have been tossed around, including the possibility of foul play (though coroners familiar with the case say ocean currents and decomposition could have naturally separated the feet from their owners). Others speculate the remains might belong to four unrecovered victims of a 2005 plane crash off Quadra Island.





 8. Gardner Museum


In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990—as the city was preoccupied with Saint Patrick's Day celebrations—a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers gained entry to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and stole thirteen works of art. The thieves had to make two trips to their car with the artwork. The theft lasted 81 minutes. The guards remained tied and handcuffed until the police arrived at 8:15 a.m. later that morning.





 9. Jimmy Hoffa


James Riddle "Jimmy" Hoffa (born February 14, 1913 – disappeared July 30, 1975) was an American labor union leader who vanished in late July 1975, aged 62. He is widely believed to have been murdered. Hoffa became involved with organized crime from the early years of his Teamsters work, and this connection continued until his disappearance in 1975. He was convicted of jury tampering, attempted bribery and fraud in 1964. He was imprisoned in 1967 and sentenced to 13 years, after exhausting the appeal process. In mid-1971 he resigned as president of the union, an action that was part of a pardon agreement with President Richard Nixon, to facilitate his release later that year. Nixon blocked Hoffa from union activities until 1980 (which would have been the end of his prison term, had he served the full sentence). Hoffa attempted to overturn this order and to regain support.
Hoffa was last seen in late July 1975, outside the Machus Red Fox, a suburban Detroit restaurant. His disappearance gave rise to many theories as to what happened to him.





 10. Whitechapel



The Whitechapel murders were committed in or near the impoverished Whitechapel district in the East End of London between 3 April 1888 and 13 February 1891. At various points some or all of these eleven unsolved murders of women have been ascribed to the notorious unidentified serial killer known as Jack the Ripper. The Metropolitan Police, City of London Police, and private organizations such as the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee were involved in the search for the killer or killers. Despite extensive inquiries and several arrests, the culprit or culprits evaded identification and capture. The murders drew attention to the poor living conditions in the East End slums, which were subsequently improved. The enduring mystery of who committed the crimes has captured public imagination to the present day.

miércoles, 10 de diciembre de 2014

Christmas in the USA

Christmas Eve is on December 24th
Christmas Day in on December 25th

Symbols

The Christmas symbols in the USA are bells, colorfl lights, presents, socks on the chimney, snowmen, snowflakes, pine trees, poinsettia, mistletoe, wreath, holly...
Religious people also decorate their houses with angels, stars, candles, the nativity scene and Jesus in a manger. It's also usual for them to go to church on Chistmas Eve night.



Traditions

At Christmas people decorate their houses all together, lights are put on the main streets of the cities and a lot of families drive around the city to see the decorations of the other houses and the streets. Families put a Chistmas tree inside their houses in December, they bring them from tree farms.

People algo enjoy whatching shows as the Nutcracker Ballet, The Rockette Dancers or the Christmas Carol Play.

At Christmas people eat cookies, gingerbread men, peppermint candy canes, egglog with cinnamon, turkey, ham, and they also built gingerbread houses.



Santa 

He lives in North Pole with her wife Mrs. Claus, but they have no children on their own.
He is making toys all the year and he give them to good children on Christmas Eve riding reindeers. Then, he comes down the cimney and children leave cookies and milk for him. But if you are bad you'll get coal.
Children write a list of presents and visit him to tell what they want for Christmas and to takes photos.