Too much work last year...I´m here again. De nuevo aquí

I was too busy last year and published only in another of my blogs, for my pupils. Now I´ll try not to give up and go on writing. So have a look at this link to know what happened in the United Kingdom last 2016. Tras casi un año sin publicar en este blog, echa un vistazo a las imágenes del enlace de modo que puedas recordar lo ocurrido en Gran Bretaña el pasado año.

Which social group do yo belong to?

Read the article from this British newspaper and think about it.

Latest news...Ultimas noticias

After having a holiday break, these are the most important news in my opinion: let´s have a look!
                                                                     Is this Anne Boleyn's ghost?

A tourist who was visiting the childhood home of the beheaded queen, Hever Castle, captured a spooky image of what he claims is her ghost and in the photo we can see a hand with a long finger pointing towards the chimmney and the tourist thought there is something important historically inside the fireplace. Look at the photos and think about the building that Anne haunts.

Queen Elizabeth II becomes Britain's longest-reigning Monarch: 

Her Majesty became queen at 25 and at 89, she had ruled for 23,226 days. The first Queen Elizabeth gave her name to an age, as did Victoria, in an ever more powerful kingdom. But this is not going to be the legacy of this Elizabeth, who has reigned over Britain's long transition from Empire to Commonwealth, from world power to relative international insignificance.

A new Princess for the British...Nueva princesita inglesa

Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambrigde, gave birth  on Saturday May 2 to a baby girl whose name will be Charlotte Elizabeth Diana...but will she rule England one day? Of course she will because the sixteen countries belonging to the Commonwealth agreed on abandoning male preference on succession. Moreover, Roman Catholics are excluded no more. This happened in 2011 so the new little princess takes number 4 for succession to the British Throne. If you are interested, click on succession.

Los británicos ya tienen nueva princesita: el matrimonio entre Guillerno y Kate, en abril de 2011, puso sobre la mesa el tema de la sucesión al trono de Inglaterra, ya que hasta entonces, cualquier hija nacida del duque y la duquesa de Cambrigde no habría disfrutado del derecho al trono. Así pues los líderes de los 16 países de la Commonwealth, cuya jefa de estado es la reina Isabel II, acordaron la igualdad de los derechos al trono para hijos e hijas de los monarcas británicos, así como el derecho a contraer matrimonio con alguien católico romano, algo que no estaba permitido. Para más información pincha en este enlace.

Teddy Bear Hospital...el hospital de los ositos de peluche

The "Teddy Bear Hospital" (TBH) is a Public Health project for 3-6 year old children and its aim is to avoid children´s fear of doctors and hospitals. The project tries to familiarize children in a friendly atmosphere in a hospital: children are now the parents of their teddy bear and are responsible for their sick little friends taking care of these unusual patients.
Most teddy bears have fractures of legs and arms and when the doctor writes a prescription, the child can get some "medicine" sweets in the TBH pharmacy.
El Hospital de los ositos de peluche es un proyecto con el que se pretende que los niños pierdan el miedo a médicos y hospitales haciéndoles partícipes de la salud de sus pequeños pacientes.

Football and Violence

A group of Chelsea football supporters prevented a black man from boarding the Paris Mètro while they sang a racist song  ( "We are racist and that´s the way we like it ") before Chelsea's Championship League.

No more than two months ago a man died in Spain after being thrown into the river in Madrid after a fight between Atlético de Madrid and Deportivo de la Coruña supporters.

Are racism and violence a cultural part of sports, mainly "football"? Where does the responsibility go to? The consequences for the club´s reputation is obvious: a disgusting behaviour. But in my opinion the world of sports is full of stupid people who die for their colours. Incredible but true. If you want to know more about it click on this link. 

...and more incidents in Italy...hooligans everywhere? Es indignante que el mundo del fútbol tenga a tanto fanático violento. ¿Qué tiene este deporte que no tienen otros?

Ebola, a deadly virus...Ebola mortal

Britain is on high alert following the terrifying news that Ebola could hit their shores in the next two weeks. But who is most at risk of exposure and what is being done to prevent the deadly virus from spreading? Of course health workers, travellers and families of Ebola victims. But it's very difficult to fight against this mortal virus because it is new and countries don't have instruments enough to avoid the risk. Look at Spain, where a nurse has been infected after cleaning the room of the Ebola patient, priest Miguel Pajares, in the hospital where she worked. Now she is isolated and people close to her are watched although they don`t have symptoms. Despite confirmed cases of Ebola in the USA and Spain in recent weeks, Public Health says that the overall risk of Ebola in Europe remains low.

El ébola es una enfermedad mortal que ha traspasado las fronteras africanas para "colarse" en Europa y en Estados Unidos. En España tenemos el caso de una enfermera que afortunadamente lo ha superado pero el virus nos pilló desprevenidos, sin saber bien cómo reaccionar. ¿Cómo es posible que algo tan delicado y tan nuevo para todos nosotros se transforme en herramienta política? Seamos prudentes e intentemos colaborar para curar esta mortal enfermedad.

Aren´t princesses human? Princesas de carne y hueso

There is a strange stir in the UK about the "bare bottom" pictures of Kate Middleton published by an Australian newspaper. The picture was taken when Kate´s dress blew up while visiting Sydney´s Blue Mountains...We needn´t be smart to understand that these things happen to everybody, royals or not. So I think this code of etiquette about publishing or not the pictures is ridiculous...is it really news? I don´t think so.
  El revuelo que se ha formado en Reino Unido sobre la publicación de unas fotos de Kate en las que el viento le juega una mala pasada a su vestido es absolutamente estúpido. ¿Acaso el viento distingue entre personajes reales y los que no lo son? Todos somos humanos y estamos expuestos a estas jugarretas...¿dónde está la noticia?

MGM Anniversary...el león de la Metro cumple años

The film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) has launched a promotional campaign that will take place during 2014 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of its founding in April 1924. 

MGM, which at that time came from the merger of Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures celebrates its birthday as a reorganized company after a management crisis that forced the veteran lion famous study into bankruptcy in November 2010. Since its creation , MGM has received over 175 awards from the Academy Awards, including 14 Oscar for best films. To begin the celebrations of his 90th birthday, MGM took a lion until today's Chinese Theatre Hollywood, which was immortalized in the cement feline footprint, a ceremony attended by the actor Sylvester Stallone, whose saga "Rocky" is one of filmography values ​​of  the studio. If you are interested, MGM has also launched this commemorative blog, has created a history book for collectors and conducted a memorial trailer released on Youtube.

El león de la Metro cumple 90 años de rugidos y durante todo este año se celebran actos conmemorándolo. Entre los más curiosos, el león puso su felina huella en el cemento Hollywoodiense acompañado, entre otros de Sylvester Stallone.

Football and London tube

To celebrate the 150th anniversary years of both The Football Association and the London Underground, the organisations have teamed up to create a limited edition tube map which shows the 367 stations across the 14 lines renamed as football´s greats. The lines are important because Leytonstone, for example, is the place of birth of David Beckham and the Victoria Line features stars of the women´s game like Kelly Smith. But the most important for us is that we can find Spanish footballers like Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso, Silva, Pepe Reina, Fábregas or the coach Rafa Benítez. Here you have the Map Key.

If you want to see a video with more information click here
Actualmente se celebra el 150 aniversario del metro londinense y la federación inglesa de una manera muy futbolística ya que las paradas y líneas del metro se llenarán de estrellas del fútbol, entrenadores, jugadoras, árbitros, porteros, defensas y centrocampistas...y ¡cómo no! también jugadores españoles que han llegado a la Premiere. 

Peter O´toole

This Irish actor will be unforgetable due to his role of Lawrence of Arabia but he was a formidable stage actor who had a charismatic romanticism and glamour of the Victorian era. He played Macbeth at the Old Vic, King Lear or Beckett´s Waiting for Godot...and it is a pity he received seven oscar nominations without a win. You can find out more about this great actor in this link . He left us last 14 December in London at the age of 81.

El actor irlandés Peter O´toole murió en Londres a los 81 años de edad el pasado 14 de Diciembre. Fue un maravilloso actor de cine y teatro, carismático, de aire romántico...si quieres puedes escuchar su fantástico monólogo "My life", perteneciente a la obra "Lion in Winter".

Mandela...Invictus

Nelson Mandela, Africa´s father, died last Thursday at the age of 95. Mandela was the icon of South African anti-apartheid who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president. He was an example for many people due to his vision of a society where none is exploited, oppressed or dispossessed by another...and of course he was an example for President Obama, a symbol of revolution, resistance and triumph over racial segregation. He won the Nobel Peace Prize and raised millions for humanitarian causes. Mandela was in Spain twice in 1992: at Barcelona´s Olympic Games and then he won the Prince of Asturias Award of  International Cooperation. In the film Invictus, rugby was considered by many blacks to be a symbol or racist white minority rule (for years South African sports teams had been excluded from international competition due to boycotts ), but Mandela championed the Springboks seeing it as a unifying moment for the new "Rainbow Nation"...and he got it by the power of sports on South African hearts and minds. But South Africa is still bedeviled by challenges from class inequality to political corruption to AIDS and with Mandela´s death it has lost a guide of optimism.
Ha muerto Nelson Mandela, Premio Nobel de la Paz 1993, filántropo y  revolucionario político anti apartheid que sirvió como presidente de Sudáfrica desde 1994 a 1999. Fue el primer mandatario negro del pais y sirvió como referente a Obama. Descanse en paz.

Malala for Prime Minister of Pakistan

Do you remember Malala? She was shot in head for campaigning for girls´rights and she has decided that she could help more people by going into politics. Malala was saved when she was taken to Birminghan´s Queen Elisabeth Hospital for further surgery and rehabilitation after been  under emergency neurosurgery in Pakistan. She has written a book, I am Malala, that became a bestseller after its release earlier this week. Malala is one of England Prides.

Malala fue tiroteada en la cabeza cuando defendía los derechos de las niñas en Pakistán. Ha acudido a varios eventos, dado conferencias e incluso ha escrito un libro que se ha convertido en super ventas tras su publicación. Esta niña coraje siempre ha insistido en que los talibanes dispararon a su cuerpo pero no a sus sueños.

Ipads for pilots...ipads para los pilotos

The United States has the most advanced air force in the world

but  pilots still haul great amounts of paper flight documents into the cockpit. That may soon end: The Air Mobility Command is experimenting with what they are calling an electronic flight bag, for us... iPads.

Maps, charts flight plans and other documents that pilots have to lug into the cockpit are now loaded on to the iPads as part of an experimental program. They're still carrying the paper while evaluating the electronic flight bags

Commercial pilots are also beginning to use them. The digital flight bags are easier on the backs of pilots, who no longer have to haul huge bags around, but there is another benefit: the reduction in weight carried on to the plane also saves on fuel costs.

El uso de ipads, tabletas, ereaders ..., es cada vez mas habitual en nuestras vidas a pesar de que nos cueste cambiar a los que poco o nada estamos acostumbrados a ellos. Cierto que estas herramientas son ligeras, cómodas y que ahorran cantidades ingentes de papel. Pues bien, ahora los pilotos tanto de las fuerzas aéreas americanas como de vuelos comerciales, forman parte de un programa experimental que sustituye sus documentos de cabina por ipads con toda la información. Lo dicho, el progreso es cambio.

The scalpel to pen: doctors and writers. Médicos escritores.

 

In a recent visit to India I read in the newspapers an article dealing with doctors who "have changed prescriptions for books". This is the case of Dr HS Rissam, a cardiologist who has published "The Scalpel: Game Beneath", which deals with the murky world of the medical mafia and the malpractices in his profession". This "medithriller", as he calls it, moves from Delhi to New York, London, Chicago, Sydney, Barcelona and Istambul, and is a bestselling book that has gone into its fourth reprint. But there are more doctors-turned-writers, such as Ambarish Satwik, a Delhi based cardio-vascular surgeon at Ganga Ram Hospital who has written "Perineum: neither parts of the empire", a fiction novel which is a rogue and deviant sexual history of the British Raj, surgeon Dr Vikram Batra, who wrote his first book "Perfect Anger" mixing poetry and prose or Dr Kaveri Nambisan whose "The Story That Must Not Be Told" was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature 2012. From medical thrillers to murder mysteries or to historical fiction they are writing it all...but most of these doctors say their first love is medicine. Congratulations!

En un reciente viaje a India leí en la prensa un artículo relacionado con médicos que se han animado a escribir novelas o poesía pero sin abandonar su amor por la medicina. Es una buena idea porque a la hora de escribir una novela de suspense médico o de asesinatos misteriosos, ¿quién mejor que ellos para describir al cuerpo humano?

A visionary for the English Royal Family. Visionarios.

It´s a great event for the British that Kate is pregnant and obviously, there are speculations about how the child will look like. Have a look at this article and the pictures made by a South-African geneticist. What do you think?

¿Cómo será el futuro bebé de Kate y William? La genética podría mostrarnos algo así. 

Mercury and Mars...Mercurio y Marte

Now that Curiosity reached Mars we should remember that this planet has always inspired television series or movies and no less than in the 20's inspired a silent Russian film called Aelita: Queen of Mars. For more information on this and other films visit this link. But now the news: Curiosity reached Mars  for a two-year mission to explore the Red Planet equipped with the latest technology to investigate whether there was ever life there or there would be. The space tracking will be followed  from the station Robledo de Chavela, Madrid, the only NASA in Europe; this is important because the device technology REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station) acting on the planet as a weather station  has been developed in Spain. If you want more detailed information read this  article.

Ahora que el Curiosity ha llegado a Marte conviene recordar que este planeta siempre ha inspirado series de televisión o películas y nada menos que en los años 20 inspiró una película rusa muda llamada Aelita: Reina de Marte. Otras películas sobre Marte son Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953, USA),Mission to Mars (Brian de Palma, 2000), Mars attacks (Tim Burton, 1996).. Pero vamos a la noticia: Curiosity llegó a Marte para una misión de dos años en la que explorará el Planeta Rojo equipado con tecnología punta para investigar si alguna vez hubo vida o puede haberla. Su seguimiento espacial se llevará también a cabo desde la estación de Robledo de Chabela, Madrid, la única de la NASA en Europa; este hecho es importante porque la tecnología del dispositivo REMS (Rover Environmental Monitoring Station)que actuará en el planeta como una estación meteorológica ha sido desarrollado en España. Si deseas ver el vídeo de su llegada a Marte pincha en mision
 . 

Hindenburg, the Titanic of the air...Hindenburg

In my last article I paid attention to the sinking of the Titanic ... and yesterday it was the 75th anniversary of another disaster: the Hindenburg. This German airship caught fire and was destroyed when it tried to land at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, USA. It was Thursday, May 6, 1937. Of the ninety people on board, there were thirty-five deaths of passengers and crew. The Hindenburg departed from Frankfurt on the first commercial trip between Europe and the United States. The cause of the fire still remains unknown but there were a variety of hypotheses being sabotage one of them. wThe disaster was an end to the age of the passenger Zeppellin. You can visit this link in Youtube to feel the emotion in the reporter´s voice... and it is also important this site with photographs of the Hindenburg´s interiors.

Cuando hablamos de tragedias en medios de transporte siempre pensamos en el hundimiento del Titanic pero olvidamos otro desastre histórico como el del zepellin alemán Hindenburg que se incendió cuando, tras un viaje transatlántico intentaba aterrizar en una estación aeronaval americana.Fallecieron 35 personas entre tripulantes y pasajeros Pincha aquí si deseas saber más sobre la tragedia del Zeppellin

Titanic´s sinking...Hundimiento del Titanic

A hundred years ago the most famous ship in history, the Titanic, sank and more than 1,500 passengers and crew died. I´m sure you know the story through documentaries, news, videos and of course having a look at the famous film by James Cameron with Leonardo DiCaprio as the hero of the ship. I remember that when I left the cinema I was wet after watching so much water on the screen. But if you want to know more facts
about Titanic click on BBCor on El País and I´m sure you will find out more details you didn´t know.

Seguro que conoces perfectamente qué es el Titanic y qué pasó con él hace ya 100 años. El día de hoy en su aniversario están previstos muchos actos en todo el mundo, incluso en nuestro país, pues diez de los supervivientes eran españoles. Aprende algo más pinchando en los enlaces anteriores.

Tamara Rojo and The ENB...

The Spanish Dancer Tamara Rojo has been appointed artistic director of the English National Ballet for the next five years. She is now the principal dancer at the Royal Ballet and formerly she was a principal dancer with the ENB. Tamara is honoured to take up the directorship and wants to work with young British choreographers. Graduated from the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos Tamara was first trained at Victor Ullate´s School and when she was twenty she arrived to London without speaking English and with a contract for the ballet of Scotland. She is another example to explain la fuga de joven talento que vive España. Repeatedly recognised for her artistic excellence (for example The Prince of Asturias Arts Award in 2005)I am sure she will do a brilliant work in the Ballet.

La fuga de jóvenes talentos es cada día mayor en España. Un ejemplo de esos jóvenes sobradamente preparados que marchan al extranjero llenos de esperanza es Tamara Rojo, excelente bailarina que tras un inmejorable currículo como bailarina ha sido nombrada directora del ENB durante los próximos cinco años, aunque por supuesto no dejará de bailar. Suerte Tamara.